Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

Satellites provide unprecedented flexibility in passing information around the world. But they compete with and complement another technology for international communications: fiber optic cables laid beneath oceans and connecting the world's major land masses. Fiber optic cables can carry more information, more quickly than satellites, but they concentrate service to the most heavily populated regions of the world. This section of cable represents late 1990s technology. Note the thin filaments at the center of the cable; these are the fiber optic strands that transmit communications.

Donated by Tyco International, Limited, Simplex Technologies, the manufacturer, to the Museum in 1999.

 Display Status

This object is on display in One World Connected at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

One World Connected
Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type EQUIPMENT-Communications Devices Manufacturer Tyco International, Limited. Simplex Technologies
 Dimensions 3-D: 27.6 × 4.4cm (10 7/8 × 1 3/4 in.)
 Materials Ferrous Alloy
Fiber Optics (Likely Glass)
Plastics
Copper Alloy
Unknown Coating
Synthetic Fiber Fabric
 Inventory Number A19990153000 Credit Line Gift of Tyco International, Limited. Simplex Technologies. Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.