Samanth Subramanian: Subsea cables are critical yet vulnerable infrastructures, fiber optics revolutionize data transmission, and privatization reshapes telecom funding | Odd Lots

Geopolitical tensions threaten the fragile undersea cables that form the backbone of our digital world.

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Add us on Google by Editorial Team May. 13, 2026

Key takeaways

• Subsea cables are critical infrastructures that underpin the digital world, often overlooked compared to their digital counterparts.
• Geopolitical volatility poses a significant risk to subsea cables, highlighting their vulnerability in international relations.
• Modern fiber optic cables are technological marvels, using highly purified glass and laser pulses to transmit data.
• Fiber optic technology employs multiplexing to enhance data transmission capacity, allowing multiple data streams to be sent simultaneously.
• The production of fiber optic cables is concentrated among a few companies, creating a bottleneck in technological capacity.
• The shift from state-owned to private investor-led telecommunications infrastructure has transformed funding and planning dynamics.
• The volume of data generated daily surpasses the capacity of satellites, emphasizing the need for robust ground-based infrastructure.
• Big tech companies’ ownership of transatlantic cables raises concerns about data privacy and security.
• Control over data infrastructure by tech giants affects internet access and privacy, highlighting issues of data governance.
• Internet infrastructure redundancy is akin to the natural monopoly seen in railroads, ensuring stability and reliability.
• The evolution from telegraph to fiber optic cables marks a significant technological advancement in communication.
• The bottleneck in fiber optic cable production could impede the development of global data infrastructure.
• The role of big tech in funding and owning cables has significant implications for global internet governance.
• The redundancy in internet infrastructure provides a safety net similar to that of rail systems.
• The privatization of telecom infrastructure has led to increased investment and innovation in the sector.

Guest intro

Samanth Subramanian is a contributing writer for the Guardian Long Read. He is the author of A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane. His latest book, The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World, explores the undersea infrastructure powering the internet.

The critical role of subsea cables

• Subsea cables are essential physical infrastructures supporting the digital world.

• There is an incredible physical architecture which is the source of all these things whether it’s subsea fiber optic cables that kinda look like shipping lines or massive data centers that cost a lot of electricity and commodities to produce

  — Samanth Subramanian

• These cables are often compared to shipping lanes due to their physical nature.
• Geopolitical tensions highlight subsea cables as potential vulnerabilities in global connectivity.

• With all the geopolitical volatility that we’re seeing nowadays you always hear subsea cables coming up as a potential source of vulnerability

  — Samanth Subramanian

• The security risks associated with subsea cables are a critical issue in international relations.
• Understanding the physical nature of these cables challenges the perception of digital technology as ephemeral.
• Subsea cables are a backbone of global communication, often taken for granted in discussions of digital infrastructure.

Technological advancements in fiber optics

• Modern fiber optic cables represent significant technological advancements over early telegraph cables.

• The modern fiber optic cable is a real technological marvel… they’re made of highly purified glass and down that cable you send sort of little pulses of light lasers essentially and they kind of bounce around the inner walls of the glass.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• Fiber optic technology has exponentially increased data transmission capacity through multiplexing.

• Multiplexing where they send different frequencies of light encoded with different streams of data and so that kind of bounces around the glass at various speeds and then it comes out of the other and you kind of whoop suck it out and you code it all back together and you kind of read the information out that way and that has kind of exponentially increased the amount of data that a cable can carry.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• The use of highly purified glass and laser pulses is key to fiber optic technology’s efficiency.
• The evolution from copper telegraph cables to fiber optics marks a major shift in data transmission methods.
• Fiber optic cables’ ability to carry vast amounts of data is crucial for modern communication needs.
• The technical mechanism of fiber optics enhances data transmission capacity, supporting global connectivity.

Challenges in fiber optic cable production

• The production of fiber optic cables is limited to a few companies, creating a bottleneck in technological capacity.

• These cables are produced by just a handful of companies around the world so there’s a little bottleneck over there in terms of technological capacity to produce these cables.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• This bottleneck can impact the development of global data infrastructure.
• The concentration of production among a few companies highlights market dynamics in the fiber optic industry.
• Limited production capacity poses challenges for scaling data infrastructure to meet growing demands.
• The fiber optic cable manufacturing industry plays a crucial role in global data infrastructure development.
• Understanding the supply chain of fiber optic technology is essential for addressing infrastructure challenges.
• The bottleneck in production could hinder technological advancements and infrastructure expansion.

Evolution of telecommunications infrastructure funding

• Funding and planning for telecommunications infrastructure have shifted from state-owned to private investors.

• In the eighties and nineties… a lot of these telecom companies around the world were state owned… then you saw this wave of privatization around the world… and suddenly at the same time there was also this growth of the investor led model.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• This shift has transformed the dynamics of infrastructure development and investment.
• Privatization has led to increased investment and innovation in telecommunications infrastructure.
• The transition from state to private funding reflects broader economic and political trends.
• Understanding the historical context of telecommunications funding is crucial for analyzing current infrastructure dynamics.
• The investor-led model has introduced new challenges and opportunities in infrastructure development.
• The evolution of funding models has significant implications for the future of telecommunications infrastructure.

Data generation and satellite capacity limitations

• The sheer volume of data generated daily exceeds the capacity of satellites to process it.

• You couldn’t fill earth’s orbit with enough satellites to take all that data up… everything is essentially on a cloud somewhere and there’s so much data out there that there’s not enough satellites that could process all of it.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• This highlights the need for robust ground-based infrastructure to manage data demands.
• The limitations of satellite technology emphasize the importance of fiber optic cables in data transmission.
• Current data generation trends pose significant challenges for data management and infrastructure.
• Understanding satellite capabilities is crucial for addressing data infrastructure needs.
• The reliance on cloud storage underscores the limitations of satellite processing capacity.
• The growing data demands necessitate advancements in ground-based infrastructure to complement satellite technology.

Big tech’s influence on transatlantic cables

• Big tech companies are increasingly funding and owning transatlantic cables, impacting data privacy and security.

• Now we got to the stage where two out of every three new cables were being funded and owned either in part or in full by one of these four tech companies and that has enormous sort of implications for data privacy data security.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• This shift raises concerns about data governance and control over internet infrastructure.
• The role of big tech in internet infrastructure has significant implications for global data management.
• Ownership of cables by tech giants affects who gets access to the internet and raises privacy issues.

• Who controls your data but also like who controls who gets the internet.

  — Samanth Subramanian

• Understanding the impact of big tech on internet infrastructure is crucial for addressing data privacy concerns.
• The concentration of infrastructure ownership among a few companies highlights challenges in data governance.

Redundancy in internet infrastructure

• The internet’s infrastructure has considerable redundancy, similar to the natural monopoly seen in railroads.

• There’s a considerable amount of redundancy built in because I think the deal here is this even if google owns for example one transatlantic cable…

  — Samanth Subramanian

• This redundancy ensures stability and reliability in internet connectivity.
• The comparison to rail systems highlights economic principles observed in internet infrastructure.
• Redundancy provides a safety net for internet infrastructure, similar to railroads.
• Understanding the redundancy in internet infrastructure is crucial for ensuring reliable connectivity.
• The natural monopoly observed in rail systems offers insights into internet infrastructure dynamics.
• Redundancy in infrastructure supports stability and resilience in global connectivity.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.