Don't forget Apple. Building a computer or a phone company today is basically impossible. We're heading towards a state of extreme monopolies. There is no way to vertically integrate like Apple without having access to crazy amount of resources and time. If there is competition, Apple's cash reserves will come to rescue and crush any competition.<p>I love Apple products but this is all so worrying.
It would be a lot more worrisome if they were actually owned and operated completely in a close system by the four and only rented out the bandwidth. But this is not the case here.<p>Yes, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft invest in international undersea cables. But those Cables are done by a Consortium of companies. Not just between the four listed but many Telecom companies in the regions.<p>Pacific Light Cable Network for example, connecting between Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and the US only cost $300M with 120Tbps according to the same WSJ. That is such a small amount of money by modern standard. Not to mention while the cost wont likely go down, the total bandwidth you get from deployment will continue to go up in the future. A 1 Pbps undersea connection isn't too far fetch within 10 - 15 years time.
My 10 year old self couldn't imagine having these massive artificial brains scattered throughout the world connected by high speed fiber network being a real thing.