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Global communication infrastructure
Submarine Internet Cables
A map of the physical network connecting continents, servers, data centres and billions of devices. The internet may appear to exist in the cloud, although much of its traffic travels through glass fibres laid across the ocean floor.
ℹ️ Important clarification
This map is a highly generalised, schematic visualisation of submarine internet cables.
The exact positions of the routes are not publicly communicated and are not shown here for security reasons. The lines are generalised and intended for educational use.
🌐 How does internet data travel?
When you open a website, the request is divided into packets. They travel from your device through routers, terrestrial networks and data centres, often crossing an ocean through a submarine fibre-optic cable. Inside the cable, information is carried as pulses of light through strands of glass.
Light travels through optical fibre at approximately 200,000 km/s, about two thirds of its speed in a vacuum. A transcontinental signal can therefore arrive within tens of milliseconds, although the actual time also depends on the route, equipment and number of intermediate nodes.
⚠️ Accuracy of the routes
The cables are shown in generalised form, suitable for geographic and educational visualisation. They should not be read as engineering coordinates of the actual routes across the seabed. Maximum zoom is therefore limited to a regional scale.
💡 Questions to consider
• Which parts of everyday life depend on this network?
Data: an open GeoJSON archive based on an earlier public version of the TeleGeography Submarine Cable Map. The lines are an educational, generalised representation of cable systems rather than precise engineering routes across the seabed. A public production map requiring the most recent licensed data should use an official TeleGeography licence or permission from SubTel Forum/STF Analytics. Basemap: OpenStreetMap.
© The Museum of Maps, 2026