Page 9 - Industrial Technology EXTRA - 6th April 2020

POWER RESISTORS...

Down to the wire: a resistor’s

role in laying subsea cables

Data might be up in the cloud, but it’s very much in the ocean too, with subsea cables
forming a vital communications network. How do these cables make it to the sea
floor? Simone Bruckner of Cressal Resistors explains the challenges of cable laying

eneath our seas lie thousands of cables, short, such as the 81-mile CeltixConnect that joins
tasked with carrying the world’s internet Ireland to the UK. Others, such as the SeaMeWe-3,
traffic. Around the width of a garden hose, are as long as 25,000 miles and have dozens of
Bthese network cables link countries and landing points all around the world.
continents and are responsible for around 99 per cent Today, there are around 380 underwater cables in
of global internet activity. Some cable networks are operation, spanning a length of nearly 750,000

6 April 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA! • p9