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The vast majority of the worlds communications are not carried by satellites but an altogether older technology: cables under the earths oceans. As a ship accidentally wipes out Asias net access, this map shows how we rely on collections of wires of less than 10cm diameter to link us all together
CE RI FA
Anchorage
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Kodiak Kenai
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DAN IC
er
nia
At la
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Alexandria, Wednesday
A ships anchor accidentally cuts two cables, SeaMeWe4 and FLAG Europe-Asia, reducing internet capacity in Asia by 75%
Brussels Odessa
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Dublin
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Taiwan, 2006
Seattle
HSCS VSNL TGN-Pacic PC-1
Southern Cross
FLAG Europe-Asia
SeaMeWe-3
JAPAN
UNITED STATES
Los Angeles
New York
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Marseille
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Caucasus Onli
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Site of the previous biggest cable disaster, when under-ocean landslide cut nine cables between Taiwan and the Philippines, disabling net access for weeks
Ge or gi as Ru sia
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KJCN
PACIFIC OCEAN
PC-1 China-U.S. PC-1 China-U.S.
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Lisbon
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VMSCS
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Athens
KELTRA-2
JAPAN
Pusan
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Cabl e
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SA T-3
Shanghai
MA C
Gibraltar
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CHINA
Hong Kong
C2C
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Japan-U .S.
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Sou
Taipei
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A C th EA Nor h n ac Re C2Cc G/ LA
VSNL TG
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ATLANTIC OCEAN
Kuwait City
Kuwait-Iran Qatar-U.A.E.
CHINA
TW1
Shanghai
MAC
BICS Bahamas 2
N Intra-Asi
Honolulu
TP C5
TPC 5
G FO
INDIA
Mumbai Chennai
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C PA
Hong Kong
Taipei
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Fibralink
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Cayman-Jamaica
APCN
Guam
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CFX-1
Manila
EA C
AAG
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San Juan
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AFRICA
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FLAG
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Caracas Cayenne
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Euro
FLAG
Europe
-Asia
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s-I
Arabian Sea
EAC
Abidjan
SAO TOME & PRINCIPE
Sou th
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Colombo
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Euro
sia pe-A
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SeaM
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Singapore
Libreville
Singapore
Jakarta
JA SU
Australia-Japan
Luanda
SEA
Dar es Salaam
N SAC/LA
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SA
SAm-1
Jakarta
INDIAN OCEAN
JA SU
Port Headland
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Noumea
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Auckland
SA
Sydney
At lan tis SA -2 C/ LA N m1
SOURCE: TELEGEOGRAPHY.COM SUBMARINE CABLE MAP 2008. INTERNET STATISTICS FROM INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM
US RA
US RA
ASIA
Maputo
AUSTRALIA
Perth
Go
So
uth
ern
Asia has an enormous number of internet users: 501 million of the worlds 1.3 billion users. And its growing by 882% per year
Noumea
AUSTRALIA
Perth Sydney Auckland
3 eWe-
Southern
Cape Town
NEW ZEALAND
World cable capacity
Submarine cable operators light (turn on) capacity on their systems to sell bandwidth to other carriers. Carriers buy extra capacity, mainly to hold in reserve. On the trans-Atlantic route 80% of the bandwidth is purchased, but only 29% is used
NEW ZEALAND
The longest submarine cables
The SeaMeWe-3 system from Norden in Germany to Keoje, South Korea connects 32 dierent countries with 39 landing points SeaMeWe-3 Southern Cross China-US 39,000 km 30,500 km 30,476 km 28,000 km 25,000 km
Cross-section of a cable
Cables of this strength are typically 69 mm in diameter and weigh over 10,000 kilograms a kilometer. In deeper waters, lighter and less insulated cables are used
Galvanised armour wires Tar-soaked nylon yarn Optical bres Silicon gel
60m
India Pakistan
12m
6m
Egypt
4.7m
SaudiArabia UAE
1.7m
0.8m
Kuwait
7.1 tbps
Purchased capacity
27%
Private networks, owned by companies
0.3m
Qatar
5.7 tbps
Used capacity
72%
Internet
1%
Telephone calls
0.2m
Bahrain
2.1 tbps
Estimated international bandwidth usage by country (gbps) 1,000+ 200 - 999 50 - 199 1 - 49 1
Buering material (plastic/steel) Nylon yarn bedding Ultra-high strength steel wires
Copper sheath