Written for Best Effort Network, Olia Lialina solo exhibition, London, 2020


There are three major parts of the internet, three rings if you like.

People are on the outer ring which is called the Last Mile. Comprising the outer ring are the texts we send, the notifications we receive, the websites we go to and all the social media updates we post and look at; basically anything we search, like, buy or communicate is located in this outer ring. Also in this outer ring are houses, offices and all their internet devices, as well as wifi and routers and cell towers. All of these things use radio waves to send information to, and receive data from, the internet.

The way this data is cross-communicated between people is strategic and done in an economical way. For example: if I send an image that I’ve taken with my phone camera to you via email, the first thing that happens is the image gets cut up into more manageable pieces called packets. These packets are then assigned some data called a header - where the packet has come from and where it’s going to amongst other things - which follow rules akin to a postal service. Inside the data packets, the cut up image is turned into binary code made up of 0’s and 1’s. Each number is called a bit, and 8 of these bits stringed together is called a byte. These bytes need to get themselves onto the radio waves to be sent. It works like this: 0’s and 1’s are sent on radio waves using different frequencies in order for the computer to understand what is a 0 and what is a 1. This is called frequency modulation (1).

The radio waves carrying the bytes go into the router. Once in the router, the data is then carried out via wires which can either be electrical current if the wire is copper, or as lazer light whereby a 0 is no laser light, and a 1 is laser light present. The cables coming out of the back of the router in your house or office then connect to other wires outside which are owned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) who are responsible for looking at the header of each of the packets of data and figuring out the fastest way for those packets to reach their next destination. This is an Internet Hub, where all the information comes in (from your devices, through your router, then to the Internet Hubs) located in the second ring of the three interlocking circles.

In the third and central circle is the internet backbone. Within this are thick, fibreglass cables which run under the ocean floor bed and carry laser light of the data to another part of the world. Although strong, there have been cases in recent years where the internet has been disabled completely. One particular case of this was in 2019 when an internet cable was dragged across the seabed accidentally by an anchor from a ship (2). This meant that everyone living on the remote Island of Tonga, 1,100 miles northeast of New Zealand, were without internet for 11 days. This case highlights the importance of a stable internet infrastructure, but also speaks of the vast number of people who don’t yet have a reliable internet connection or internet at all. The distribution of high speed cabling is incentivised by companies who would rather designate their time and labour into getting more cabling in larger cities, like New York or London, leaving those who live outside larger cities the possibility of an unstable connection. Internet Service Providers are less likely to lay cables in more remote areas, or areas with less population and less wealthy areas, as the process is expensive. However, because of this, some areas of the world only have access to one or two Internet Service Providers meaning a monopoly on a market and higher costs for those who may not be able to afford it. 5G internet, dubbed ‘the new internet’ may alleviate some of these problems albeit bringing many more with it, like the breaching of our data rights or potential health risks (3).

5G uses higher frequency radio waves to carry packets of data - unlike 4G, the waves in 5G internet are faster and longer and allow for more information to be packed into each wave., However, the higher the frequency the easier it is to block the waves, so in order for 5G to act sustainably and give a good service, more physical infrastructure is needed, meaning more signal towers etc. This requires a lot more money, and as before, Internet Service Providers are less likely to provide 5G for less populated or less wealthy areas.

[1]In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave.
[2]https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/ datelinepacific/audio/2018705741/tonga-internet-compa ny- claims-cable-cut-was-sabotage
[3]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48616174