Most of the internet communication is still done with the help of high-speed underwater cables. While some of us are lucky to use satellite communication directly, the fact remains that these cables are the backbone of today’s connected world. Their importance can be gauged from the fact that when a country experiences a breakdown of these cables, the internet is choked, and every online work is halted, leading to a massive backlog.
The total length of these underwater cables is close to an astonishing 885,000 kilometers. It means that these lines can circumnavigate the world more than 22 times. It has almost 99 % data circulating throughout the world from social media newsfeeds to sensitive military information.
Here, an animation from Business Insider shows how these lines are laid out throughout the world:
It’s something huh?
Via Business Insider