As a gust of wind marked the beginning of one of the largest telecom constructions of the century

The elements that raged in the states in 2012 arranged such a large-scale destruction of the telecommunications infrastructure that literally provoked the world IT giants to unite and begin perhaps the largest telecommunications construction site in the entire history of the Internet.

The yard was the golden autumn of 2012 in New Jersey. Frank Ray, who is responsible for global network strategy, rested at home with his family, when an unexpected strong gust of wind tore up a tree in front of the house and, lifting the car parked in the courtyard, hit it against the house. At that moment, it became clear that Hurricane Sandy, who had already made a fuss on the East Coast of the states, arrived in Jersey to create havoc here, like after a crazy student party at an American film comedy.



At that time, Sandy had not left the front page of the news for several days and Rei wanted to inform his relatives living in Europe that he and his family were fine. But "alas, ah" - the Internet did not work. Subsequently, this seemingly ordinary case for regions with hurricane activity, served as a powerful impetus to the beginning of one of the largest telecommunications construction projects in the entire history of the development of the Internet.

Hurricane Sandy left the Americans a lot of bitter memories, killing several hundred people, and bringing damage to tens of billions of dollars.







After his adventures, the entire East Coast of the states lay in ruins. The damage, unprecedented in scale, caused the telecommunications infrastructure. Wired and wireless Internet in the region was absent for several days. Flooding disrupted the work of data centers, which is why the websites did not work, the work of various spheres of life from e-commerce to online media was disrupted. All this has had a tremendous impact on the transatlantic communications linking some of the largest economies in the world.

As a result of Sandy’s rampant, the link between North America and Europe has dramatically degraded and has been in this state for several hours. However, thanks to the storm, it was possible to identify a potential problem, which consisted in the consolidation of transatlantic Internet cables, having connections mainly in New York and New Jersey, which makes the telecommunications infrastructure extremely vulnerable to random cataclysms.

The events of the fall of 2012 had a huge impact on the leading minds of the global IT giants. The realization that another such storm could simply destroy the communication channel across the Atlantic made them seriously think about it. Periodic meetings and discussions of representatives of IT giants at industry events led to the unification of engineering and technical base to increase the reliability of transatlantic global communication channels.

So, Microsoft and Facebook have agreed on a partnership in the development and implementation of a 6000-mile submarine cable that would connect the city of Virginia Beach in the United States and the city of Bilbao in Spain. Later, the subsidiary of the operator Telefonica, the global telecommunications infrastructure company Telxius, joined the partnership. She took on the task of managing the process of building and operating the cable. They decided to call it the beautiful word Marea (Tide).

That was the beginning of the largest telecommunications construction in the entire history of the development of the Internet. To confirm this statement, one should go back more than a century and look at the history of the development of the transatlantic communication network.

The first timid attempts to lay a cable across the ocean were made in 1857. However, the first transatlantic telephone cable broke very quickly.


Telegraph cable map across the Atlantic

A year later, the submarine cable appeared between the islands of Valentia and Newfoundland, but in September it failed. In 1864, laying of 5,100 km of cable with improved insulation began, and it was decided to use the Great Eastern ship, the largest ship of those times, as a cable layer. July 31, 1865 when laying there was a cable break.


Scene of cable break at Great Easternne

Only in 1866, on the second attempt, was it possible to lay the cable, which provided a long-term telegraph connection between Europe and America. It is curious to note that the cable, which was torn off in 1865, was discovered, after which it was sealed with the missing fragment and was able to function successfully. Since then, the cable infrastructure has spread throughout the world, and there, where the wire could not penetrate, satellite communications reign.



Perhaps the last thing before the start of Marea construction was the laying of the FASTER cable from the USA to Japan. It can transfer up to 60 Tbps of data per second - at the time of launch it was the fastest. However, the possibilities of Marea are many times greater.

Construction Marea began in August 2016. After a year and a half, the cable is ready to send the first packets of Internet traffic.




Marea laying on the seabed

The maximum bandwidth of Marea is 160 Tbps. The cable is designed to interface with various network devices. Thanks to the new "open" design, Marea can develop with the help of technology, ensuring maximum performance for both current and future users.



The technology of cable laying is standard for such projects. A special ship with a coil, where the cable is wound, runs it across the bottom of the ocean. Hundreds of workers and engineers are involved in this work, and divers must control the quality of the Marea laying at shallow depths.









The cable is located at a depth of up to 3,350 meters, and its diameter is about one and a half times larger than that of a conventional garden hose. Inside there are eight pairs of optical fiber, which is protected by a layer of copper and hard plastic. Finally, the outside of the cable is covered with waterproof rubber.







Some sections of the cable, located closer to the shore, are buried in the ground to protect the cable from the activities of fishing vessels, but for most of its route the cable is openly lying on the ocean floor.





The cable is so heavy that you have to carry it along the shore with an excavator bucket.








Cutting video frames on how Marea was laid

So the Spanish workers send Marea on a long journey, straight to the eastern shores of the Americas, where it should be connected to a hub in the city of Virginia Beach.





Marea is by far the most powerful underwater cable crossing the Atlantic. It can provide speeds of up to 160 terabits per second. It is more than 16 million times faster than the average home Internet connection, with the ability to simultaneously stream 71 million high-definition videos. In addition, the Marea landing point in Bilbao provides a convenient path to network hubs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and its huge bandwidth will help meet the growing demand for Internet and cloud services.



According to experts, in the modern world, the number of applications related to high-quality video content is growing, which means that all developed countries should be connected to a high-performance infrastructure with high bandwidth. Thanks to its unique route, this cable can improve the transmission of traffic to the whole world.

In the short term, Marea will be the most important route for cross-border data flows between the United States and Europe. Transatlantic data flows are expected to continue to grow as more and more consumers use mobile smart devices to access the Internet.


Worker adjusts cable on the beach in Spain

It is noteworthy that Marea has already begun to change the world around her. For example, Northern Virginia, which has long been one of the major Internet data centers in the world, is already awaiting serious diversification of the urban economy. According to officials of Virginia Beach, Marea will turn the port city into a digital port. In addition, together with Marea, the first major investments have already come to the city. Spanish steel maker Sanjo has invested $ 17.5 million in building a new plant in Virginia Beach. The plant will serve as a subsidiary of Sanjo headquarters in Barcelona and will allow it to better serve large customers.