Installing cables can be difficult — especially if they're 9,000 kilometres long and up several kilometres underwater. Our photo gallery gives you a look inside the 'Ile de Sein', a ship used to lay Telstra's latest fibre optic cable, which will become part of Australia's global Internet network backbone.
This is the Ile de Sein — and as you can see — it's a massive ship. It sports a crew of 60, who work in shifts to lay cable twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
The cable that runs between Australian and Hawaii isn't straight; it needs to run around under-sea mountains, past crevasses and follows the rugged terrain of the sea floor. Many months of planning were involved in plotting the best undersea route for the cable. A member of the project commented the undersea cables can reach depths of 5,000 metres or more.
Telstra expects the cable to be active by the fourth quarter this year. Bandwidth on the cable will be available to both Telstra retail and wholesale customers.
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"A giant hydraulic machine sits on the back of the Ile de Sein. We don't know what it's for, but it's impressive."
That's all kinds of funny!!