"Facebook Backs Two Major Undersea Cable Projects, Google Joins Forces For One"

That's it.

If Zuckster and the Goog are going to stand astride major communication choke points it's time to work out the details of the shortwave radio setup.

Via The Motley Fool, August 16:

Mark Zuckerberg is charting a course for the deep seas that would make nautically inspired film director James Cameron jealous. Facebook said...

Facebook said Monday that it's backing two new massive underwater cable projects, one in Africa and another in Asia. Google is on board for the latter project as the two Silicon Valley titans move to command more of the global infrastructure that powers their businesses.

Owning The Digital Superhighway

Faced with slowing user growth in North America and Europe, Facebook's investments in Africa and Asia should come as no surprise: the continents are home to many of the 3.6 billion people still without internet access. Like Google (which announced a $10 billion investment in digitizing India last year), Facebook is highly motivated to build out infrastructure in emerging markets, so it's no wonder the two have linked up:

• Facebook and Google will together back a 7,500-mile-long underwater cable system in the Asia-Pacific that will serve burgeoning demand for broadband and 5G connectivity in the region. Dubbed Apricot, the project (set to go live by 2024) will connect Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore.
• Facebook's 2Africa cable project, a partnership already in the works with a group of telecoms, will now tack on connections to Seychelles, Comoros Island, Angola, and Nigeria. Launching by 2023, 2Africa will ultimately link 26 countries.

Financial terms of the projects weren't disclosed, but it's evident why Facebook and Google are willing to fork out major funding for cables. Similar to Amazon, which leases its own fleet of cargo planes to dial back its reliance on third parties, having cable ownership means Facebook and Google won't rack up hefty expenses for fiber-optic transmissions....

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Now, using Gilligan's Island as our template for low-tech high-tech, how did The Professor keep the radio operating?

A bit of DuckDuckGoing and, from Mental Floss:  

11 of the Professor's Best Inventions on Gilligan's Island

9. A battery charger.

In "X Marks the Spot" from the first season, the Prof fashions a battery charger out of coconut shells and seawater. In fact, he details the whole process, just in case you want to give it a go. Let us know how it works out for you.

"We need coconut shells, seawater, metal strips, pennies.The pennies are held in the seawater by the hairpins. The wire coming from the pennies leads to the positive pole of the battery. Metal strips on the other side of the coconut, lead to the negative pole of the battery. Now, everybody get ready to stir their coconuts, when I get the battery hooked up."

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Hmmm, on second though maybe a Peloton hooked up to a generator would be easier than maintaining a supply of coconut shells.