migrationskillsandthejobmarket（migrationskillsandthejobmarket）（6页）.docVIP

Digital Divide in the UK? Fact Sheet Lesson 2: The Global Digital Divide Starter Shark attack! Communications technology has played a key role in the growth of globalisation. Many important global flows and different types of global interaction rely on the transfer of internet data carried by undersea fibre optic cables. Yet this technology can be vulnerable to different types of physical and human hazard. Common threats to these cables include: submarine landslides, tectonic activity, tsunamis, accidental damage by shipping, sabotage … and shark attacks! Sharks have been causing internet communications blackouts by attacking and biting undersea cables. “We’ve seen shark teeth embedded in the polythene casing that surrounds these cables, especially around the Canary Islands, where underwater visibility is low. We think they’re attracted by the electrical feeds emitted, so we add an additional layer of steel under the polythene where we believe there’s a particular ‘fish bite’ risk,” an expert told the Financial Times (03 November 2009). Students can check out the facts for themselves by reading the newspaper article. Other recent submarine cable disasters include: In 2006, a submarine earthquake and landslide destroyed Taiwan’s telecom link with the Philippines. Asia temporarily lost 75% of its internet capacity in 2008 when a ship’s anchor severed a major internet artery running along the seabed from Palermo in Italy to Alexandria in Egypt. Main activity (1) What is the global geography of (i) the internet and (ii) mobile phones? How are patterns changing? In terms of internet access, there is still a considerable and persistent ‘digital divide’ between rich and poor countries. Statistics showing global internet use identify a clear gap between rich and poor places: only one in 500 Africans subscribed to broadband in 2007 (Figure 1). In Europe and the Americas the figure was 20% (with families sharing a broadband subscription, in the UK th