Below the ocean’s surface lies one of the world’s most important but least visible infrastructures — a vast network of fiber-optic cables stretching more than 1.48 million kilometres across the seabed as of early 2025. These undersea lines carry close to 99 per cent of all global data traffic, forming the foundation of the digital economy.
Every time someone makes a video call, sends a message, or completes an online transaction, that data races through this hidden network that silently binds continents together. Laid far beneath the waves, these cables have become the arteries of the modern world — fast, resilient, and absolutely indispensable.
The invisible road of the internet
Submarine cables send data as light signals through thin glass fibres, carrying enormous amounts of information far faster than satellites ever could. They connect data centres, cities, and continents, weaving together an unseen global grid.
These cables are of different types: the first is the transoceanic systems that stretches across oceans, regional and festoon networks that connects neighboring countries, and branching systems that links multiple landing points. Shorter routes often rely on repeaterless designs that operate without amplifiers. Together, they form a dense and resilient grid powering everything from internet and cloud computing to AI, 5G, and global finance — the true foundation of global digitisation.
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