According to European and American media reports, the New Zealand Foreign Ministry said on the 19th that it would take at least a month to repair the submarine cable connecting Tonga and foreign countries damaged by undersea volcanic eruptions. As the American company responsible for laying submarine cables, Sabkom conveys its views. It is reported that there is only one undersea cable connecting Tonga and the world, and communication is almost interrupted because it has been cut off.
At present, when interacting with foreign networks, 99% of the data goes through fiber-optic cables that spread across the seafloor around the world. Submarine cables are laid in the Pacific, Atlantic and other seafloors, and the number of cables in operation is believed to be more than 400 worldwide, extending as long as 30 laps of the earth. Therefore, it is also called "marine information superhighway".
The advantage of submarine cable is that it can send large amounts of data quickly, cheaply and stably. In addition to e-mail, financial transaction information, international calls, etc., also go through undersea cables. The performance of Otani Xiangping in the major leagues can also be seen in real time thanks to submarine cables. As an indispensable information infrastructure in the modern network era, which requires high-speed and high-capacity communication, it has received special attention in recent years.
Although it looks like a simple communications infrastructure that supports people's lives in black, it has attracted people's attention because it is related to the issue of "national security".
In August 2020, in a speech by senior US government officials, the submarine cable suddenly attracted people's attention. Pompeo (then secretary of state), who held a key position in the Trump administration at the time, made clear the "clean network concept". In addition to mobile applications, Chinese companies will be excluded from five areas, including communications carriers and undersea cables. networks will be set up only by allied countries and national companies. The state began to participate openly in the field of submarine cables, which until then was a purely private undertaking.
In this context, the rise of Chinese enterprises in the field of submarine cables. In terms of submarine cable business, three Japanese, American and European companies, including US Deputy Combe, French Alcatel Submarine Network and Japan's NEC, have been accounting for 90% of the global market share. At that time, it was the affiliated company of China's Huawei Technology (Huawei) that tried to break down there. At present, it is not Huawei, but another Chinese company that runs it.
Why is the US government so nervous about China's expansion of submarine cable business? Cables laid on the seafloor are equipped with special facilities for pulling from the seafloor to the coastal areas of various countries, from which information such as communication data can be obtained. In other words, "peeking" is possible.
As a result, the US government is worried that once the information of its own individuals, businesses and governments passes through the cables with the participation of Chinese companies, "the information will be full of loopholes" by the Chinese side. However, it is understood that Edward Snowden, a former CIA staff member, accused that it was the appearance of each other, the United States itself, collecting private information through submarine cables.
In addition to visible military fields, the hegemony struggle between the United States and China has also been launched on the stage of "the bottom of the sea."
About "will the information not be leaked?" the Japanese government is also worried about this, but compared with the United States and other countries, the "sweetness under the armpit" is undeniable.
The point that pulls the submarine cable to land is called the "unloading Bureau". In Japan, it is concentrated in two places, Nanfang City, Chiba Prefecture, and Zhimo City, Sanchong Prefecture, almost known as public information. It was pointed out that, compared with countries such as the United States, which is located in military facilities, and Australia, where the location of the unloading bureau is not disclosed, it may be the target of cyber attacks and sabotage efforts, so the risk of national security is higher.
Although Japan lags behind in the measures of the unloading Bureau, the government is not standing idly by.
In the summer of 2020, the Chilean government in South America chose Sydney as the last location for the submarine cable connecting South America to Asia and Oceania, rather than Shanghai, China. In addition, for those engaged in this business, Japanese companies such as NEC have become the direction of choice.
For Chile, China is a major trading partner. With this in mind, industry insiders have said whether they will decide whether it will be a channel to connect South America and Shanghai. However, as soon as the Shanghai route was changed, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, so the interview was conducted and the Japanese government took action. "powerful and politicians, as well as Xiaguan officials working in departments related to economic security, went to Chile for direct negotiations with senior Chilean government officials, which made Chile regret," a government official said. "
It can also be seen from this example that the importance of submarine cable cases in recent years has been called "economic security" itself.
The submarine cable has a long history and was first laid in the Strait of Dover between Britain and France in the 1850s. Japan also laid it between Nagasaki and China, Nagasaki and Russia in 71 (Meiji 4). In the early days, it was a simple process of sending messages to each other with Morse signals through copper wires inside the cable.
In places related to Japan, in the Meiji era, as Ambassador extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Tomomi Iwasura visited the United States and Europe and sent telegrams from San Francisco to Japan, which was docked and the records had left.
Since then, technology has evolved tremendously. It has evolved from copper wire winding resin to coaxial cable and optical fiber. Optical fiber, if the hair is so thick, there are dozens of bundles, protected by resin and metal covers. Put the thin thread in the sea and set it while sinking.
There used to be a lot of cases laid by communications companies, but with the expansion of the Internet in the world, huge IT companies such as Google and Facebook (now meta), which use cables, known as "GAFA", have laid their own submarine cables. People involved in the Japanese submarine cable business said: "the communication capacity used by Google and others is quite large, and submarine cables are increasingly needed for both laying and laying."
Submarine cable is the "ocean road" that supports the Global Network Information Office. With the continuous expansion of the data economy that uses information resources for the economy, information resources are becoming more and more important.
With the Tonga submarine volcanic eruption as an opportunity, the major event of the submarine cable has been re-recognized, on the other hand, measures have been introduced to "take into space" the infrastructure connected to the network.
This is an attempt by Space X, a space venture capital led by global entrepreneur Elon Musk. Speaking of Space X, he shot to fame with his first civilian launch of a manned rocket to the International Space Station, and he is considering a larger career.
This is the grand idea of launching 10, 2000 satellites into space, establishing a "satellite layer" and building a next-generation Internet network, and bringing the role of submarine cables to space exactly the same. Although there are practical projects, if the Internet is in the universe, we can avoid the situation in which the cable itself is cut off and communications are interrupted, as in the case of Tonga.
Space X technology is already partially available, and a new era of communication protagonists ranging from submarine cables to cosmic satellites may come.
