The Submarine Cables
Powering the Internet.
Over 99% of international internet traffic travels through fiber-optic cables on the ocean floor. Explore every tracked cable — routes, owners, lengths, and landing points — on our live map.
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How Submarine Cables Work
Submarine cables are fiber-optic cables laid on the ocean floor, transmitting data as pulses of light at speeds close to the speed of light. A single modern cable like Grace Hopper can carry up to 340 Tbps — equivalent to streaming 17 million 4K videos simultaneously.
Cables are typically owned by consortiums of telecom companies, hyperscalers (Google, Meta, Amazon), and national carriers. Repeaters are placed every 50–150 km to amplify the signal. The average cable takes 3–5 years to plan, build, and deploy, with lifespans of 25+ years.
Choosing a region for a website or app? Read our VPS server-region guide. Cable infrastructure is only part of the picture: routing, peering, congestion, and local access also affect performance.
Cable Directory
Cable Facts
Despite satellites getting headlines, 99% of international internet data still travels through submarine cables. Starlink and others handle the edge.
Cables are damaged by ship anchors and fishing trawlers hundreds of times per year. Redundancy via multiple cable routes ensures resilience.
Optical repeaters every 50–150 km boost signal using erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), allowing light signals to travel thousands of kilometres.