Masterarbeit Kolja Renkel: A Silent Conquest of the Backbone? Factors of the Growing Submarine Data Cable Ownership by Content Providers

Abstract: The submarine data cable (SDC) infrastructure is the backbone of the Internet and transports the majority of data exchanges worldwide. The ownership structure of those cables has been changing for several years due to new stakeholders and investors. Large content providers like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta started investing in their own SDC infrastructure. As this directly impacts the internet backbone, it might positively or negatively affect this critical infrastructure’s overall security, stability, and availability. For better understanding, I will examine the key factors that are important to content providers when planning to build an SDC connecting a particular country. I approached this by creating hypotheses with factors grouped into four categories: socio-economic, political, technological, and geographical. Using multiple regression analysis, I examined the various key factors and their relevance. The results show that countries with a high gross domestic product (GDP) and high internet usage but with more general political tensions and less technological progress, compared to the First World, are of great interest to content providers planning SDCs. Based on the results, the different implications of the ownership change in the SDC critical infrastructure are discussed. The findings suggest that the internet backbone is growing and gaining stability. However, as the named content providers are U.S.-based companies, it is likely that the U.S. dominance over the SDC infrastructure will further increase. Additionally, there is a chance that this could result in a market centralization around Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, as their bandwidth usage is already over 50\% of the worldwide traffic. Content providers must be aware of their responsibilities and comply with regulations such as the NIS2 to further guarantee the security, availability, and fairness of usage.

Betreuer*in: Jonas Franken, M.A.

Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter