2016 Trends: Preparing the Network for Web-Scale Demands

Submarine Networks

Service providers will begin planning for a submarine capacity shortfall.

Submarine networks that transmit 99 percent of the world's global Internet traffic are currently operating at 20 percent capacity, yet in just four years, with the volume of data traversing the networks growing at 40 percent year-over-year, this critical Internet infrastructure will be at maximum capacity. To support this growth rate, service providers will need to make significant investments in the development of not only new cables, but in the specialty ships and specialist crew to lay the fiber. There will be much talk about who will fund this, and how. Due to the long lead-time required to build a submarine cable (about two years), the conversations about how these new cables will become a reality will need to start soon.