Story: Connecting Continents
Deep beneath the vast blue oceans, miles of fiber optic cables quietly stretch across continents, silently powering the internet. These cables act as the lifeblood of the digital world, like veins and arteries that allow data to travel at the speed of light. They carry everything from emails to video calls, social media posts to online shopping transactions—all without us ever seeing the magic happening beneath the surface.
One standout story is about the remarkable Marea cable, which was completed in 2017. This 4,000-mile-long cable connects Virginia Beach, USA, to Bilbao, Spain, running beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The Marea cable is no ordinary connection; it was built to carry 160 terabits per second of data—enough to stream millions of high-definition movies at the same time. Think about how much information we send across the internet every day: cloud data, video streaming, online shopping, and social media—all of this needs massive bandwidth to keep the internet fast and responsive.
What makes the Marea cable even more fascinating is the collaboration behind it. It was built with the help of Microsoft and Facebook, two of the largest tech companies in the world. These giants teamed up to build a system that could handle the growing demand for faster, more reliable internet. Together, they ensured that people across the globe could continue to connect, work, and entertain themselves without a hitch.
The Marea cable is a symbol of innovation and cooperation in the digital age. Even though we might not see or think about these cables every day, they are the hidden foundation of everything we do online. Whether you’re binge-watching your favorite series, attending an important video call, or scrolling through photos on Instagram, it’s the undersea cables like Marea that are working tirelessly to make those moments possible.
The next time you make a video call or watch a streaming show, remember: the internet’s heartbeat is in the cables stretching across the oceans, connecting us to a world of endless possibilities.
