A couple of months ago, we blogged about the astounding global network of subsea cables that keep the world connected through the internet. Underwater cables play an essential part in day-to-day life, yet very few people are actually aware of their existence. It’s difficult to describe the true scale of the network of offshore custom cables that power the internet in words, which is why we’re thankful for the this frankly jaw dropping map of the underwater cable network in 2013, produced by TeleGeography. The map, which you can view either as a straightforward image in this post or in an excellent interactive format on the TeleGeography site, provides a truly fascinating insight into a network that not many people know about. The old-school map shows the precise location of every underwater cable in the world and the countries it connects, as well as cables planned for the near-future. The map also provides a potted history of subsea cables with an impressive timeline illustrating the massive growth of the subsea cable network since the mid-90s – a boom that coincides with the explosion in worldwide internet usage. Particularly interesting is the recent development of underwater cables between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, which only started emerging in 2008. There is also a latency section, neatly set out in the manner of a star chart, illustrating the delay in the round trip data sent over the internet between two countries. If you’ve ever wondered why a site hosted in Australia takes longer to load than a site hosted in the US, here’s your answer! We all take connectivity for granted, yet the map provides an interesting illustration of just how far our data has to travel. While the UK has direct undersea connections with the US, data sent to Japan, for example, has to embark on a cross-continent journey that would potentially take days for a person to complete. Data sent through underwater cables takes just a matter of seconds to arrive at it’s destination. When you consider the amount of data being sent through these cables too, it becomes clear what a marvel of modern engineering subsea cables are. Well, we say modern – the first subsea cables were actually installed way back in the late 1800s, while most of the continents in the world were connected by the early 1900s! It’s fair to say that early cables weren’t quite as technologically advanced as the optic-fiber cables we use today but it says something for the effectiveness of underwater communication that we still rely on the technology for a completely different purpose over 100 years later! For more information on how subsea cables are built and designed, take a look at our previous post on the subject or get in touch with Custom Designed Cables on 01204 658 784.