The internet depends on a network of submarine cables no thicker than a garden hose, yet these tiny conduits carry the vast majority of global internet traffic. As digital demand explodes and new cables proliferate, cable route engineers face an increasingly complex challenge: finding space on the seafloor for new systems while maintaining the safety and reliability of existing infrastructure.
Global internet bandwidth increased by 23% in 2025, maintaining its consistent pace of steady growth.
Total international bandwidth now stands at an impressive 1,835 Tbps, representing a four-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24%.
Although the pace of growth has slowed ever so slightly in recent years, bandwidth has still more than doubled since 2021.
While new submarine cable systems are being built to expand global internet capacity, the maintenance of submarine cables has not seen the investment required to maintain these systems.
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s telecoms operators have faced a continuous struggle to maintain connectivity for the country’s inhabitants. As well as widespread damage to infrastructure, they’ve had to deal with frequent power blackouts, cyberattacks and more.
Submarine cables carry over 99% of international data traffic and face unprecedented cybersecurity challenges that extend far beyond traditional network security.
In this episode of the TeleGeography Explains the Internet podcast, Ferris Adi, Chief Information Security Officer at Trans Americas Fiber System, recently shared insights on the evolving threat landscape and strategic approaches to protecting these vital assets.
Providers’ shift to predominantly 100 Gbps internet backbones continues to reduce the average cost of carrying traffic, enabling profitability at lower prices. As a result, price erosion remains the universal norm, reflecting the introduction of competition into new markets and the response of more expensive carriers to lower prices.
In this episode of the TeleGeography Explains the Internet podcast, senior analyst Lane Burdette takes listeners on a deep dive into the complex world of submarine cable economics.
How AI will impact enterprise networks is a huge topic that we're tackling in a multi-part series. In these posts, we're comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a legacy MPLS network—one that still represents many multinationals’ WANs in 2025—to various hybrid or internet-first alternatives designed to accommodate changes brought by AI and cloud.
How will AI impact enterprise networks?
What is the global submarine cable industry thinking about right now? What are the key debates and headlines to know? And what is Singapore like in September?
These are a few of the questions Submarine Networks World attendees are asking as they gear up for next month's conference.
We may not be experts in the weather department, but we do have insight into the event agenda and a few pieces worth reading or watching before jetting off to Singapore. 👇
