Antarctica could get high-speed internet through submarine cables, report suggests

Antarctica is currently the only continent without a high-speed fiber optic cable connection. As of now, researchers there use low-bandwidth satellites to communicate their collected data with the outside world.

Antarctica’s McMurdo station could get high-speed internet through submarine cables, according to a recent report. The station is the largest US research hub in Antarctica and is located on an island just off the northwestern part of the continent. Antarctica is currently the only continent without a high-speed fiber optic cable connection. As of now, researchers working in Antarctica use low-bandwidth satellites to communicate and share their collected data with the outside world. The amount of bandwidth available is limited and researchers have to store their data on hard drives rather than exporting it for their colleagues to analyse in real-time.