Can someone direct me to a resource from which I can learn much about the transatlantic phone and data cables. I’m interested in their physical aspects, such as size, mounting to the seafloor, data capacity, etc. I was reading an article in the paper about the AT&T buyout and it got me curious.
Neal Stephenson wrote an article for Wired a while back on this subject, titled Mother Earth, Mother Board. It might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but it’s a fine, fine article and worth every one of its 56 (!) pages.
It’s of historical interest, and doesn’t have up-to-date info, but a fascinating book on this that I just read is A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable by John Steele Gordon.
The SF writer Arthur C Clarke as also written a book on the same subject . Titled *Voice Across The Sea *It covers the years from the 1850’s to the mid 1970’s . It was written in 1974 so is probably now out of print but the ISBN is 0 86002 0681 in case you can find a copy.
That is a very interesting article. I read it a while back and really enjoyed it.