I was recently looking on the Internet to see what I could find for maps of fiber optic cable routes in the US. I wanted to find something like the maps on An Atlas of Cyberspace, but I wanted more detailed, vector format, nation-wide data files I could use to make my own maps.

I couldn’t find much–at least not detailed, not vector, and the data was never free. But come to find out, you can buy this high-quality, detailed data. It’s very expensive, but it seems there are (otherwise) no obstacles in terms of getting it. That is, you don’t need to be a government or telecom company to look at it. The prospects also look unfortunately bleak for using an FOIA request to get it from public records which might contain the data.

One commercial data provider kindly gives you a sample map from their product to see the level of detail they provide. The area of focus for the sample? Washington DC. How handy. And I thought this stuff was hard to get because of the “terrorism risk”? Just another way corporate control over what-should-be-public-information makes private companies tons of money… sigh.