Another mess?

At the end of the last post (reference 1), I mentioned the messy and potentially difficult geography of northern Europe, in part a legacy of the troubles of the first half of the last century. 

It so happens that the first story I read in today's Financial Times, is about the potentially difficult geography of the undersea cables which carry the bulk of the world's Internet traffic, a large chunk of which is down to the combination of Google, Facebook and Microsoft - and a large chunk of which is built by French, US or Japanese companies. I had not realised that the French were big here: having done time at their offices then at Windmill Hill, Swindon, I was still living in a world dominated by Cable & Wireless.

A story made up of a series of striking graphics, linked by a modest amount of text.

But diverting to reference 3, from which the (very properly pink) snap above is taken, I was taken back to the cable wars of a previous era, when the British, the Germans and others busied themselves with cutting each others' cables.

Returning to the present, China is pushing into today's cable market, partly by offering very cheap product - from where I associate to Microsoft pushing into the database market, more than twenty years ago now, by offering very cheap product - and the US is pushing back. If anyone is going to dominate cable it is going to be them. We are clearly a long way from a world of cooperating adults, where it is understood that no-one is going to be in charge. So plenty of scope here for all kinds of trouble.

I might also mention the tension between the founding concept of the Internet, open to all, without interference by central authorities, and the all too natural desire of many countries to monitor if not control what is going on in their own countries. So a Muslim country like Saudi Arabia might well seek to block infidel content. While a liberal country like the UK might well seek to block abusive content. 

Always keen on machines, this image caught by eye. A large plough for ploughing a trench into the seabed and popping the cable into it. Maybe the same order of size as a large agricultural plough? And what about all disturbance to the sea-bed: what have Greenpeace and their friends got to say about that?

While this image brought home to me the extent to which eastern China is hemmed in by other, smaller countries. Rather in the way of western Russia - but not in the way of US, which is open to both east and west. An accident of geography rather than of evil or purposeful design - but an accident which makes plenty of scope for trouble.

Let's hope that the UN or some similarly neutral body get in on the act before things get out of hand.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/between-strikes.html.

Reference 2: How the US is pushing China out of the internet’s plumbing: Driven by fears of espionage and geopolitical tensions, experts say the subsea cable market is in danger of dividing into eastern and western blocks - Anna Gross, Alexandra Heal, Chris Campbell, Dan Clark, Ian Bott, Irene de la Torre Arenas, Financial Times - 2023.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_%26_Wireless_plc.