When discussing submarine cable bandwidth, it’s crucial to distinguish between lit capacity and potential capacity.
These terms are not interchangeable, and the difference between them explains a key aspect of the submarine cable market.
TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map recently hit a new milestone: depicting over 650 cable systems.
As of February 2025, that’s a whopping 570 in-service systems, with another 81 planned.
The number of cable systems we study is constantly increasing. This is due to massive investment in this infrastructure—both along major routes and to small islands—as well as our ongoing efforts to track global systems in more detail.
The number of in-service systems is greater now than in any other year within the last two decades.
Earlier this week, operators of two communications cables—C-Lion 1 and BCS East-West Interlink—reported faults in the Baltic Sea.
Local internet service seems largely unaffected, but a swirl of sabotage allegations have emerged in the global press.
Without making a ruling on any ongoing investigations, let’s look at the facts.
