New Scientist - 26.10.2019

38 | New Scientist | 26 October 2019

A global network

Percentage of people with

internet access (2017)

KEY

In-service

submarine cable

Planned

submarine cable

Landing station

Whenever anyone connects

to the internet, usually via an

internet service provider, they

become part of the overall

network. Separate networks

across the globe communicate

with each other using a common

language, known as TCP/ IP, to

route data from point to point.

Since 1998, responsibility for

basic internet regulation, including

apportioning the IP addresses that

allow computers to locate one

another, has been held by the

non-profit Internet Corporation

for Assigned Names and Numbers,

ICANN, based in Los Angeles.

Originally subordinate to the US

government, since 2016 it has

been overseen by an internationally

appointed committee, ensuring the

internet is truly owned by no one.

Richard Webb

The backbone of the internet is a

series of undersea fibre-optic cables

linking national telecoms networks.

Often owned by companies or

consortia of them, sometimes

with government involvement,

they provide the intercontinental

highways through which data

packets ping back and forth.

The density of these undersea

connections determines the

bandwidth available for the main

global data flows (see diagram,

far right). That bandwidth is largest

between the US and Canada and

Latin America, Europe and Asia; and

between Europe and the Middle

East and Asia. Sub-Saharan Africa

is more sparsely served – and has

the lowest proportion of people

connected to the internet of any

part of the globe (see the red

numbers, right).

South Korea

96 %

Japan

85 %

Middle East and

North Africa

65 %

North America

88 %

European Union

84 %

Latin America

and Caribbean

63 %

Number of fixed broadband

connections (top 10 countries)

#8 UK

27 million

#6 Brazil

31 million

#2 US

116 million

SOURCE: WORLD BANK