Subsea cables energy the web beneath oceans all around the world. However what number of cables are there?
As telecom consultants, we all know as a result of we hold monitor. And TeleGeography’s interactive submarine cable map lately hit a brand new milestone: depicting over 709 cable programs!
As of 2026, that’s a whopping 607 in-service programs, with one other 102 deliberate. The variety of in-service programs is larger now than in every other yr inside the final twenty years.
How can we rely submarine cables?
Because of huge infrastructure investments—each alongside main routes and to small islands—and our ongoing efforts to trace international programs in additional element, the variety of cable programs we research is consistently growing.
We give attention to publicly-known communications programs and exclude undersea strains completely devoted to energy transmission, analysis networks, and personal authorities use. As soon as cables are retired, we take away them from our on-line map.
For extra data on the cable-tracking course of, you possibly can hear my colleague Greg Bryan and I get into the small print on the TeleGeography Explains the Web podcast. Hearken to the total episode right here.
What are submarine cable programs?
The variety of cable programs we monitor is completely different from the overall point-to-point connections proven on the map.
Every cable system is uniquely designed to suit its capability necessities and native geography. As such, it could comprise a number of segments or branches, as do over half of the programs on our map.
The distinction between cable programs and segments is most simply demonstrated within the Atlantic. Though there are solely 14 in-service trans-Atlantic cable programs, 18 segments really cross this route.
That is made doable by programs like Vodafone’s Apollo, which connects the U.S., France, and the U.Okay. by two parallel paths—one North, the opposite South, and every with their very own pair of touchdown stations.
It’s also possible to try this report on submarine cable touchdown stations.
Utilizing submarine cable knowledge
A few of this fascinating knowledge is publicly accessible by our interactive submarine cable map.
However in the event you’re in search of the info telecom consultants use to maintain their pulse on worldwide markets, you want TeleGeography’s Transport Networks Analysis Service. This platform delivers knowledge and evaluation on long-haul networks and the undersea cable market, with forecasts of worldwide bandwidth provide, demand, costs, and revenues.
With detailed profiles of community service suppliers and submarine cable programs, Transport Networks Analysis Service is the worldwide telecom business’s most complete supply of knowledge and evaluation. Take a fast tour with the video under, and get analysis samples while you fill out the shape on this web page.
