smd@clock.org (Sean M. Doran) wrote:

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Examining this a bit more closely, since undersea capacity is terribly expensive, when there is adequate capacity available to a large aggregate of sites people want to get to, there will be an obvious market for access to that capacity.

Actually, i do not understand why undersea capacity is so expensive. Cable is more expensive, yes; but the paths are much straighter, and there's no need to purchase rights of ways (except for shore-side strips). There's no need to dig trenches -- you just drop the cable off the boat.

From what I've read, it's quite difficult to lay undersea cable. There was a nice article in the Dec. 1996 issue of WIRED covering the FLAG (Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe) project, written by (of all people) Neal Stephenson. Online at:

http://wwww.wired.com/wired/4.12/features/ffglass.html Daniel ~~~~~~