connectivity outside the US

Sat May 31 20:46:00 UTC 1997

> smd at clock.org (Sean M. Doran) wrote:
> 
> > Examining this a bit more closely, since undersea capacity is
> > terribly expensive, when there is adequate capacity available
> > to a large aggregate of sites people want to get to, there will
> > be an obvious market for access to that capacity.   
> 
> Actually, i do not understand why undersea capacity is so
> expensive.  Cable is more expensive, yes; but the paths
> are much straighter, and there's no need to purchase
> rights of ways (except for shore-side strips).  There's
> no need to dig trenches -- you just drop the cable off the
> boat.

>From what I've read, it's quite difficult to lay undersea cable.  There
was a nice article in the Dec. 1996 issue of WIRED covering the FLAG
(Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe) project, written by (of all people)
Neal Stephenson.  Online at:

  http://wwww.wired.com/wired/4.12/features/ffglass.html

Daniel
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