With all eyes on Kyiv, videos like this one from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have made a monumental impact on the world’s ability to understand conditions on the ground.
Ukrainians are using their mobile phones to share the sights and sounds of Russia’s invasion, posting to platforms like Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok. These images may have already played a critical role in galvanizing public opinion in the EU, North America, and elsewhere.
How do tweets and videos from Ukraine reach the rest of the world?
Here are a few things to understand about the networks that have allowed Ukrainians to share their stories.
The internet is in the ground and sea, not the sky.
When a mobile user sends a message, that message first hits a cell tower. It may then transfer to another cell tower—but most mobile operators prefer to send their traffic to fiber networks as soon as possible.
A majority of cell towers connect to fiber backbones. Most of this fiber is buried; some hang on telephone poles. (And traffic destined for the internet often passes through an internet exchange either within Ukraine or other countries first.)
You might ask: what about a satellite-based approach? Elon Musk grabbed headlines over the weekend with his announcement that his satellite communications Starlink service will be sending additional terminals to Ukraine.
There’s no doubt that these terminals could be useful, but satellite communications are a drop in the bucket compared to fiber networks which can handle way more traffic than satellites.
Speedtest.net measured median upload speed from Germany to Starlink at 18 megabits per second (Mbps). A fiber-optic network’s capacity typically is reported in terabits per second; one terabit is a million times greater than one megabit.
Mobile operators already have access to fiber backbones. But the only people in Ukraine who could take advantage of Starlink would be those who have a downlink terminal. It’s unclear how many are presently in Ukraine.
And beyond upload speeds, there’s the practicality of it all. Mobile operators already have access to fiber backbones. But the only people in Ukraine who could take advantage of Starlink would be those who have a downlink terminal. It’s unclear how many are presently in Ukraine.
How does traffic get out of Ukraine?
In our latest research, we identified 32 different telecom carriers that provided optical (transport over fiber) connectivity out of Ukraine.
Many carriers publish maps of their backbone; you can see that there are multiple international fiber crossings from Ukraine via Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and others.
Mapping Backbone
At this point in our analysis, you might be wondering: why highlight this information? Isn’t that dangerous?
The truth is, backbone information is, by nature, very public. Operators share backbone details and data center locations not only to detail their capabilities, but to help users plan for resiliency.
What happens when fiber fails?
Fiber-optic networks need two things: electricity at stations to regenerate the optical signal and an unbroken connection. But cables fail all the time. Our friends at Kentik recently noted a communications disruption out of the city of Mariupol, quite possibly caused by the ongoing siege.
We don’t have precise numbers on how many terrestrial breaks there are, but it’s a common problem even in peacetime. New construction often causes accidental disruption; backhoes rip through cables easily.
We don’t often hear about these problems, however, because there’s so much network redundancy. If one path breaks, there usually remains several others for failover. Yet even with redundancy, catastrophic events can disrupt several networks simultaneously.
We don’t often hear about these problems, however, because there’s so much network redundancy. If one path breaks, there usually remains several others for failover. Yet even with redundancy, catastrophic events can disrupt several networks simultaneously.
When physical network problems do occur, satellite communications can shine. Although they’re unable to effectively replace fiber networks due to their vastly lower throughput, satellites don’t rely on physical paths on the ground for connection.
Beyond Starlink’s promised connectivity, Ukraine already has access to satellite constellations such as SES.
What will happen to Asia-Europe communications if Ukraine’s fiber networks are destroyed?
Several fiber-optic networks stretch from East Asia, through Russia, and connect to western Europe. One major path travels through Ukraine; a secondary path transits via Belarus.
But most Asia-Europe terrestrial traffic passes northwestern Russia to the Baltics, Finland, and Scandinavia.
Most significantly, we estimate that over 90% of Asia-Europe telecommunications occur not over Russian terrestrial fiber, but via submarine cable.
Tim Stronge
Tim Stronge is VP of Research at TeleGeography. His responsibilities span across many of our research practices including network infrastructure, bandwidth demand modeling, cross-border traffic flows, and telecom services pricing.