Tapping into fibre optic cables

Abstract

When researchers laid the first undersea communication cable in the 1850s, they could not have known how long distance communications would advance in the subsequent 150 years. Thick copper wire laid under the ocean began carrying telegraph signals around 25 years before the first telephone patent was granted. Today, hair-thin cables can carry terabits of information each second. They frequently serve individual organisations with 1 Gbit/sec or more between different metropolitan locations, both for primary data communication and backup infrastructures. The terror attacks in New York and London bought home the importance of having remote data backups.