Brazil, Europe plan undersea cable to prevent U.S. spying

[boomerang]

http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-presse...7--finance.html;_ylt=AwrTWfz.cAtT4nwACq3QtDMD

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.

At the cost of $185 million. Pocket change. I imagine the seas are going to be seeing a lot more cable being run in the near future.

Brazil relies on U.S. undersea cables to carry almost all of its communications to Europe. The existing cable between Europe and Brazil is outdated and only used for voice transmission.

EU leaders are sympathetic to Brazil's call following the revelations of fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that showed the agency also eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone and some EU institutions.

U.S. President Barack Obama has since banned spying on the leaders of close allies, but trust has been damaged.

 

[Zaap]

$185 mil seems like chump change for this.

If our greedbag govt proposed something like this, it'd be 185B each year for 15-20 years.

 

[JEDIYoda]

that won`t happen...we will find a way to tap into that cable....good example -- the cold war or ww2..lolol

 

[z1ggy]

Lol. We will tap the line physically and listen.

 

[Brainonska511]

Lol. We will tap the line physically and listen.

Operation Ivy Bells

 

[Thebobo]

Interesting map

 

[norseamd]

that won`t happen...we will find a way to tap into that cable....good example -- the cold war or ww2..lolol

Lol. We will tap the line physically and listen.

and the russians or chinese and our connections?

 

[PokerGuy]

That actually sounds relatively cheap, I'm surprised they haven't done this already. Of course I'm sure the cable will be tapped along the way, so it really doesn't do much of anything to keep prying eyes away.

 

[Genx87]

This is just Obama getting more stimulus working.

 

[shortylickens]

Lol. We will tap the line physically and listen.

you dont even need to do that:


http://www.homedepot.com/p/Triplett...u=203345762&ci_kw=&ci_gpa=pla&ci_src=17588969



Induction.

 

[norseamd]

they should also run a line from brazil to africa

 

[who?]

Does trans-oceanic fiber require electronic repeating?

 

[hal2kilo]

Lol. We will tap the line physically and listen.

Yep, send out the Jimmy Carter.

 

[z1ggy]

Yep, send out the Jimmy Carter.

I know a few guys who have been on one. There's a section so top secret, not even ay of the ship yard workers or engineers were allowed on after a certain point in time.

 

[Pocatello]

They really think this is going to prevent us from listening to their conversation?

 

[Bowfinger]

you dont even need to do that:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Triplett...u=203345762&ci_kw=&ci_gpa=pla&ci_src=17588969


Induction.

No, induction doesn't work with fiber. But as others have suggested, we apparently can and do tap underseas fiber regularly.

 

[Mark R]

Does trans-oceanic fiber require electronic repeating?

I'm led to believe that the signals use photonic repeaters every 50-100 km, typically erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA).

The amplifiers do need power though. Although EDFAs are laser powered, it's not practical to transmit the high laser power needed via long optical fibers, so typically a high-power (1-5W) driver laser is incorporated in the EDFA modules and powered by an electrical cable run along with the optical fibers.