Having worked for a transcarrier in my past life. I can tell you in the old days Satellite commuinications was the preferred method. However starting around the early 80's they started laying reliable Trans-atlantic and trans-pacific fiber -optic cables. If you had the map of exsisting cables today you will see that their are multiple cables running from continent to continent. They span the major population areas(ex. Mamahawkin NJ to France and England for one cable.). The major carriers are the owners of these cables. They usally are the size of OC-48's, OC-192's and OC-256's). They all have backup redundancy in case one fiber fails. If the whole cable fails then traffic is rerouted to another cable until the faulty cable is repaired (can take months to fix). All-in all they do a pretty good job in keeping the communications running throughout the world. Response times are pretty good. You will find that third world countries (Some in Africa, South America) still run satellite communications from their continental carrier stations to their countries POP. Most countries have carriers that are owned by the government and thus are regulated by their countries.Different rules and different tariffs. Hope this enlightened you...Please rate....
