India, Dec. 19 -- There are about 900,000 miles of undersea cables lying on our ocean floors, holding filaments often as thin as a human hair. Together, these cables transmit 95% of all international data, and form the physical web that makes the internet possible.

The longest of these, named 2Africa, stretches 28,000 miles, along the coasts of UK, Portugal and West Africa, with the line now being extended to the Middle-East and India.

Each such cord has at its heart the actual glass fibres. Protecting these are layers of steel wire, covered in copper wire, covered in polymer fabric (for final waterproofing). The whole assemblage then simply sits on the ocean floor.

"For the longest time, there were about 100 to 120 cable cuts a year, ...