Since the 1850s, we've been laying cables across oceans to become better connected. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables constantly transmitting data between nations.

That began to change in 1988 with the laying of the first transatlantic fiber-optic telephone cable, TAT-8. With a capacity of 40,000 simultaneous phone calls on just two pairs of single-mode ...

Every time we perform this ritual, I can’t help but wonder about all the gear that makes it possible, including the fiber optic cables running beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Undersea communications ...