Data at Risk: The Geoeconomics of Global Telecom Networks, 1850-2025 – Michael Porcellacchia

Speaker

Michael Porcellacchia (Kiel Institute)

Abstract

We study the global dominance of hegemonic powers in telecommunications infrastructure, an essential yet vulnerable backbone of the modern economy. Using a newly constructed, granular dataset covering all international submarine cables laid between 1850 and 2025 (telegraphy, telephony, internet) and every telecommunication satellite ever launched, we document that the United States has come to control most internet cables and satellites. This mirrors British dominance in 1890, when UK firms dominated global telegraph cables. We show that geopolitical tensions prompt secondary powers to reduce dependence on the hegemon by investing in parallel networks. These often include economically redundant submarine cables, whose primary rationale lies in geopolitical resilience rather than peacetime efficiency. We use network traffic analysis and the geographic features of each cable to identify such economically redundant investments.. 

Authors

Michael Porcellacchia (Kiel Institute) – Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute) — Benjamin Wache (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis und Kiel Institute Fellow)

Room

Media Room (A-211)