Chris St Claire can talk to his relatives in Scotland with ease, despite an ocean between them. A vast network of cables under the sea makes it possible.
“We all use it and don't think about it,” said St Claire, the Chief Operations Officer of Globalinx Data Centers. “In our day-to-day life, we've become accustomed to it, haven't we?”
The transmission happens at the speed of light because the data is light, carried by submerged cables stretching between continents. Cable landing stations convert the light data into a format people can read or hear. From there, the data is shared with internet service providers, like Verizon and Cox Communications.
Globalinx operates a landing station data center in Corporate Landing Business Park in Virginia Beach. The Virginia Beach Development Authority approved an $800,000 grant for the company to expand its data center.
Globalinx estimated the project will cost $34.5 million, create 16 jobs and be operational by the end of 2027, according to the company’s May 12 presentation to the city.
The funding from the development authority comes with conditions, city of Virginia Beach spokesperson Ali Weatherton-Shook wrote in an email.
“Globalinx must first deliver the anticipated jobs and capital investment before any portion of the $800,000 award is released,” she wrote. “Payments are made only after verified performance.”
Three subsea cables already run from Globalinx’s data center in Virginia Beach to Europe and South America. Google owns a cable that connects to France. Facebook, Microsoft and Telxius own the cable connecting to Spain. Another cable owned by Telxius connects to Puerto Rico and Brazil.
The company’s expansion will make room for four more cables to satisfy growing demand, St Claire said.
“We used to use Skype, and the picture wasn't great, so that used a tiny amount of data,” he said. “Now, if we're on (Microsoft) Teams with an international group of colleagues, for example, we want it in 4K. It’s our data use that has increased that drives the needs of these cables.”
Cable landing stations have been around since the 1860s, when subsea cables were used for telegraphs, he said.
And they’re different from those built for AI, he said, noting landing station data centers like the one in Virginia Beach are smaller, quieter and use less water and energy.
“It's literally just changing traffic and moving it,” he said. “It's not trying to work out somebody's PhD thesis.”
The cables themselves are also smaller than most people imagine. St Claire said they’re about the size of a garden hose, and the fiber optics inside are about the diameter of a strand of hair. But they make the modern world go round.
“It's phone calls, it's Teams, it's companies that make international orders, it's financial transactions,” he said. “It is literally anything that goes between countries, 95% of it goes through subsea cables.”
