Guess what? We upgraded our Interactive Submarine Cable Map.
Your favorite cable resource—currently sponsored by HMN Tech—now depicts a huge 487 global cables and 1,304 unique landing stations. Even better, we layered in new functionality to search and select multiple cables, landing points, countries, RFS years, and suppliers.
As of 2021, we've recorded over 1.3 million kilometers of submarine cables in service globally. And our map visualizes more than $8 billion in new cable investments over the next three years.
“We’re continually updating this interactive tool as the cable landscape develops. It’s fantastic to share our findings with the world in a free-to-use, universal resource for the industry.”
“We’re thrilled to launch the upgrades to our popular interactive map. It’s easier than ever for users to access interesting and relevant insights into submarine cable information,” said Research Director Alan Mauldin. “We’re continually updating this interactive tool as the cable landscape develops. It’s fantastic to share our findings with the world in a free-to-use, universal resource for the industry.”
Beneath the surface, this map captures decades of network history. Cables were traditionally owned by telecom carriers who would form a consortium of all parties interested in using a cable. In the late 1990s, an influx of entrepreneurial companies built lots of private cables and sold off the capacity to users.
Both the consortium and private cable models still exist today, but one of the biggest changes in the past few years is the type of companies involved in building cables.
Content providers such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon are now major investors in new cables. The amount of capacity deployed by private network operators—like these hyperscalers—has outpaced internet backbone operators in recent years. Faced with the prospect of ongoing massive bandwidth growth, owning new submarine cables makes sense for these companies.
Cable enthusiasts have another opportunity to enjoy our cartographic stylings.
Our popular print Submarine Cable Map, this year sponsored by Telecom Egypt, is currently available to order as a physical art piece and is being distributed at ITW 2021.
To explore the upgraded interactive version, visit submarinecablemap.com or peruse TeleGeography’s official cable FAQs.
