fiber optic cables

19 Stories

Internet Speed Record Smashed, Without Any 'Weird Tech'

Japanese team sees a speed of 402 terabits per second

(Newser) - How fast the average consumer actually needs their internet to be is debatable, but if you're constantly on the lookout for the swiftest connection, news out of Japan may pique your interest. PC Gamer reports that an international team from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has...

Broken Drilling Gear Has Facebook in Hot Water
Broken Drilling Gear
Has Facebook in Hot Water
in case you missed it
Aug 22, 2020 3:00 PM CDT

Broken Drilling Gear Has Facebook in Hot Water

Company left behind equipment off coast of Oregon after mishap

(Newser) - A drill bit ran into trouble and the drill pipe broke. And in this case, the drill bit was being used by Facebook to drill a hole off the coast of Oregon to hook up a transcontinental fiber-optic cable, reports the Oregonian . Now the controversial project in the small seaside...

Facebook Has Lofty Goal in Undersea Cable Boom

It wants to encircle Africa in fiber optics, reports Wall Street Journal

(Newser) - Facebook plans to lasso the whole of Africa in underwater cable. The cable project dubbed Simba would encircle the continent, linking several spots on the eastern, western, and Mediterranean coasts in an effort to provide a more stable connection and lower bandwidth costs, people with knowledge of discussions tell the...

Someone Is Trying to Kill the West Coast's Internet

Fiber-optic cables cut in 11th attack

(Newser) - Internet service from northern California to as far north as Seattle was disrupted yesterday after what the FBI says is just the latest in a yearlong series of attacks on the Internet's physical infrastructure. The culprit or culprits broke into an underground vault through a manhole and cut three...

For Fastest Internet, Try a Cabin on Edge of the World

Tiny Svalbard dwelling boasts world-class speeds

(Newser) - You wouldn't think a 750-square-foot cabin on the edge of a rock near the North Pole would offer much in the way of cutting-edge technology. After all, there are more polar bears than people in the area, and the cabin doesn't even have running water. What its Norwegian...

Cuba Finally Gets Faster Internet—in One Direction

Inbound connection is fast, uncensored, researcher says

(Newser) - A fiber-optic cable to Venezuela is up and running and surfing the Internet in Cuba is no longer like watching Fidel Castro's beard grow, though connections are still pretty slow overall, analysts tell the Miami Herald . But the faster Internet only seems to be moving in one direction, with...

US Internet Speed Is a Joke

 US Internet Speed Is a Joke 
OPINION
Dec 13, 2012 1:52 PM CST

US Internet Speed Is a Joke

Susan Crawford finds lack of a fiber-optic upgrade plan 'embarrassing'

(Newser) - The real threat to US Internet isn't foreign intervention —it's that it currently sucks. Cable companies have kept access limited, expensive, and relatively slow by global standards, complains Susan Crawford at Wired . Roughly a third of Americans don't have broadband access, and for about 19 million...

Last Place in Airing Olympics? USA! USA!

Comcast rules with iron fist as rest of world streams for free: Susan Crawford

(Newser) - The US may be a top medal earner, but it's among the last-place finishers when it comes to airing the Olympics. As Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee tweeted in the opening ceremony, "This is for everyone." Not Stateside, it seems: While residents of at least 64 territories across...

Facebook Sinks Millions Into Underwater Internet Cable

With US market saturated, Facebook looks to Asia for growth

(Newser) - Call it Bandwidth of Dreams. Banking that if they build it, users will come, Facebook is investing in a 6,214-mile-long fiber-optic cable running from Malaysia to South Korea and Japan, reports the BBC . The $450 million Asia Pacific Gateway cable is designed to reduce the countries' reliance on Singapore...

A Look at the Undersea Cables That Connect World's Internet

New ones are being laid around Atlantic in mammoth engineering projects

(Newser) - Our Internet age didn't just happen; it required thousands of miles of cables crisscrossing the ocean like veins and arteries (or, as Neal Stephenson put it years ago in Wired , turning the Earth into a computer motherboard). After a huge boom-and-bust cycle in the 1990s, the world's telecommunications...

Ship Begins Laying Venezuela-Cuba Cable

Cuba to gain its first fiber-optics line

(Newser) - Cubans will soon find it a lot easier to reach out and touch someone: US sanctions had left the island nation the only country in the Western Hemisphere not linked to the outside world by fiber optics, but a ship has now arrived in Venezuela to begin laying fiber optic...

Greenville, SC, Joins Cities Sucking Up to Google
Greenville, SC, Joins Cities Sucking Up to Google
Topeka, watch your back
Mar 10, 2010 1:40 PM CST

Greenville, SC, Joins Cities Sucking Up to Google

Town hopes to win fiber optics experiment with 'Lucky' campaign

(Newser) - Topeka, Kansas, isn’t the only midsize city sucking up to Google in hopes of hosting its high-speed fiber optic broadband experiment. Greenville, South Carolina, is giving Topeka a run for its money with its “We’re Feeling Lucky” campaign, a play on Google’s “I’m Feeling...

Bloggers Like Google's Speedy Web Plan
 Bloggers Like Google's 
 Speedy Web Plan 
quick takes
Feb 10, 2010 4:34 PM CST

Bloggers Like Google's Speedy Web Plan

If nothing else, it could ramp up pressure on big ISP's

(Newser) - Google's plan to test ultra-fast Internet speeds via fiber optic networks is going over well with tech bloggers:
  • Mark Sullivan, PC World : "Google hopes that the new model will fire up the business of being a small, local ISP. That can only be good. ... Google has a rare opportunity
...

Digital Pioneers Scoop Physics Nobel Prize

Trio's work on light paved way for Internet, digital cameras

(Newser) - The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded today to three scientists whose research into light paved the way for the digital age. Charles Kao received the prize for his work on the transmission of light through fiber-optic cables—the basis of modern communication networks. Bell Labs researchers Willard Boyle and...

Fiber-Optic Mics Eavesdrop on Thieves

OptaSense can identify footsteps, vehicles from miles away

(Newser) - Major oil companies are relying on a new fiber-optic technology to keep an underground ear on intruders, the Independent reports. Devised by a British defense firm, the OptaSense system consists of microphones placed along sensitive fiber-optic cables already laid underground. The cables sense vibrations, the mics pick it up, and...

Why US Broadband Is So Slow
Why US Broadband
Is So Slow
ANALYSIS
Mar 10, 2009 9:00 AM CDT

Why US Broadband Is So Slow

Population density, delivery methods give Asia, Europe a leg up

(Newser) - In terms of broadband, the US seems to lag behind the international pack, with slower, more expensive, less available Internet. As President Obama campaigns to improve America’s lot, Saul Hansell compares connection speeds in the New York Times. The US is middle of the pack, with an average speed...

For Some US Towns, Internet Access is DIY

As providers focus on big markets, locals take net into own hands

(Newser) - Around the world, firms and governments are ramping up the speed and availability of internet access. But in the US, telecoms are focusing mainly on big-city markets. To avoid professional brain drain, some smaller cities and towns are investing in more powerful infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reports. But the...

Massive Data Theft Breached 'Secure' Network
Massive Data Theft Breached 'Secure' Network
UPDATED
Mar 31, 2008 11:23 AM CDT

Massive Data Theft Breached 'Secure' Network

Hacked supermarket chain sent data over cable, not wireless

(Newser) - High-tech thieves were able to penetrate what experts called an especially secure computer network when they stole 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers from the Hannaford and Sweetbay grocery chains. Unlike stores that send data over wireless networks, the supermarkets used a theoretically less porous fiber-optic cable.

Tech Giants Behave Like Nations
Tech Giants Behave Like Nations
OPINION
Feb 29, 2008 4:45 PM CST

Tech Giants Behave Like Nations

eBay boycott shows how 'social contract' can be mishandled

(Newser) - A comparison of two of this week’s big tech news stories, the end of an eBay boycott and Google’s announcement of the construction of a new trans-Pacific fiber optic cable, show how the tech giants have moved beyond old corporate paradigms, writes Michael Malone for ABC News. With...

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