Where Undersea Fiber Cables Come From

The global Internet is made possible by a series of intercontinental fiber-optic cables that run underneath the oceans. But how do those cables get there? Who maintains them? What do they look like? CNet recently got a tour of one of the vessels operated by Alcatel-Lucent that lays undersea cabling. The vessel, the Ile de Batz, can lay up to 200 kilometers (120 miles) of cable per day, in normal conditions, to a depth of about 8km. The resulting photo feature answers many of those questions, and is a must-read for infrastructure enthusiasts. Link via Rob Powell.