Undersea cables are the lifeline of the Internet. Nearly all global data (99%) passes through these wires. Thanks to their hold on this gigantic infrastructure, Google and other Facebooks (now Meta) dominate access to the web.
The global Internet giants own 70% of the submarine cable industry, an industry that dates back to the invention of the telegraph. This seizure of Gafam is quite recent, for about a decade, and carries risks: that of a monopoly on the transmission of information and that of dependence on these actors.
This is proved by theinvestigation published in Le Monde by journalist Olivier Pinaud, telecommunications specialist. Questioned on Monday in the RTS program forum, the journalist argues that this monopolization can already be explained “quite simply” by the fact that they have “a lot of money”: “When we look at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, they have more than 20 billion of cash in their fund at the end of 2022, which gives them phenomenal financial power and investment capacity.
“Above all, they need an infrastructure to transport their data,” adds the journalist. “There is only optical fiber that can carry video, calls, etc. They needed this infrastructure. They said to themselves: ‘We have money, we have time, we have ways to do it, why not make investments ourselves that once telecom operators and, a long time ago, by telegraph operators?'” says Olivier Pinaud.
The map of the internet submarine cables. [RTS/DR]
Consequences of the monopoly
Questions therefore arise about the effects of this control. “Yeah, it’s a good thing that groups like Google or Meta are investing in this,” thinks Olivier Pinaud. “They have money, they do things correctly. It is good for the development of the Internet to have quality infrastructures (…) We cannot criticize them on this”.
“On the other hand, the journalist blurs, it is true that since they arrived in this sector in the early 2010s – the first Google cable dates back to 2011, it is a transpacific -, having invested massively in the sector, they have it completely overturned a sector, which was secular, which was used to working with its agenda, with its cycles: for 5-6 years there were orders, then for 5-6 years, that since 2010 the sector has not calmed down never , he notes. There are more and more orders, more and more requests for technology from Facebook or Google to manufacturers to increase capacity and power. Cables”.
For the journalist, this appetite has created tension in an industry that has a rather limited number of players in the world. “This is one of the potential dangers of this hyperactivity: subcontractors and manufacturers depend exclusively on Gafam’s orders. If the latter slow down their orders, subcontractors will inevitably be in trouble.”
Data control risk?
Another concern is that of mass surveillance and data control. “There is not necessarily the desire to control (the data), because what they are looking for is to control the traffic that passes between their different servers in order to be able to offer the best service to their subscribers,” explains the journalist.
Nearly 500 cables line the seabed today. [RTS Géopolitis]
“Knowing that the vast majority of their data originates or ends up being stored on American soil, the links to and from the United States are strategic. Of the 23 data centers owned by Google, for example, 14 are located there. Without the submarine cables, Gafam would not have been able to take control of the global internet as it did, according to Olivier Pinaud’s article published in Le Monde.
“On the other hand, (…) imagine that one day, one of these actors decides, at the request of a state – the United States for example -, to no longer provide services to a country because it is considered an ‘enemy’. It would create real problems (…) Today there is no such will, but potentially it is a real danger, or at least it creates dependence on these actors”, he worries to Forum.
Not really “private”
It would be wrong to speak of privatization, because the United States still has a great deal of weight in decisions concerning these cables. “These are private projects and investments that are financed by private companies, but the United States, since Trump came to power, has significantly strengthened its control and protection measures,” according to the journalist.
“There’s even a cell that was created in the White House, ‘Team Telecom.’ It has since been transformed into an official committee that decides whether or not GAFAM can distribute a cable from the United States to another country,” he said. said. .
“While it is perfectly legitimate for a cable to run from the United States to Europe or Japan, the two main world routes, it is today almost impossible to imagine a cable running from the east coast. From America to Asia via the Mediterranean. Team Telecom would reject any project of this kind”, concludes Olivier Pinaud.
Interview by Thibault Schaller
Web adaptation: Julien Furrer