We think of the internet as an intricate web of hundreds of interconnected devices through wireless and wired connections. In reality, the world wide web relies mostly on subsea intercontinental cables. The only time we hear about them is when they break, like in 2012 when a ship’s anchor sliced one and cut off access to the web for 6 African countries.

This talk tells how the challenges of getting these fibre cables to survive hostile subsea conditions were met with a little help from a bush fire in Papua New Guinea.