Smart Cable Routing
Dijkstra-based routing through real submarine cables and landing points from TeleGeography data. Accurate distance multipliers for land and undersea segments.
In-depth analysis of how internet traffic moves through 705 submarine cable systems, based on real measurements from our probes worldwide.
On July 26, 2026, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred 25 km northwest of Kupang, Indonesia. The event impacted a region with a significant population and infrastructure presence, but no major disruptions were reported. Authorities responded promptly, and monitoring systems tracked the event to ensure public safety and assess potential impacts on nearby critical infrastructure.
Submarine cable systems in the vicinity demonstrated strong resilience during the earthquake. The Palapa Ring East cable, which connects Kupang, Indonesia, to other parts of the region, maintained an average latency of approximately 177 ms over nine checks in the past week. Similarly, the Asia Connect Cable-1 (ACC-1) and Hawaiki Nui 1, both landing at Dili, Timor-Leste (284 km from the epicenter), held steady at ~200 ms and ~129 ms respectively, across 24 and 27 checks in the last seven days. These systems ensured uninterrupted connectivity, underscoring the robustness of the infrastructure in this area.
Real-time monitoring of these submarine cable corridors continues, ensuring reliable performance and rapid detection of any potential changes. The network remains stable, supported by continuous checks across all monitored systems.
July 26, 2026 - GeoCables reported a quiet day with stable network performance across its monitored submarine cables. Over the last 24 hours, we conducted 2505 latency/route checks involving 656 cables and flagged only one anomaly, along with two active alerts. This indicates overall network health and reliability.
Notable changes in specific cables include the Mariana-Guam Cable showing a significant latency increase to 64.62 times its baseline, while the Taiwan Strait Express-1 (TSE-1) and South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) both experienced monitoring warnings due to increased round-trip time by 194% and 130%, respectively. These changes are within normal operational jitter and do not indicate any significant issues. Other cables like WACS, GO-1 Mediterranean, Italy-Libya, MCT, Tata TGN-Tata Indicom, and 2Africa also showed variations in latency but remained well within the expected range of fluctuation.
A magnitude 6 earthquake struck off the coast of Vanuatu. The submarine cables Tamtam and ICN1 maintained functionality, ensuring stability in regional connectivity.
Earthquake magnitude 4.7 near Santa Doménica, Italy, caused anomalies on submarine cables MedNautilus, OTEGLOBE Kokkini-Bari, and Adria-1. Details and monitoring data.
The forest fire in Algeria causes anomalies on submarine cables, including the HANNIBAL System. Analysis of indicators and risks.
Discover how data routes take unexpected detours due to infrastructure and peering.
An analysis of Saint Pierre and Miquelon's internet connectivity: geography, isolation, submarine cables, and infrastructure risks.
Discover how internet data from South Africa to Guyana travels through Europe and the US.
Magnitude 7.4 earthquake off Puerto Madero, Mexico. Submarine cables, including SPCS and AMX-1, withstood the shocks.
Magnitude 6.7 earthquake off Loyalty Islands on July 13, 2026. How submarine cables Gondwana-2 and Tamtam held up during the event.
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| Point B | - |
| Coordinates A | - |
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| Cable Multiplier | - |
| Crosses Ocean | - |
| Route Details | - |
| Data Source | - |
Dijkstra-based routing through real submarine cables and landing points from TeleGeography data. Accurate distance multipliers for land and undersea segments.
Interactive map showing every cable your data touches - backbone nodes, landing stations, and submarine segments with real geographic coordinates.
Launch real network measurements from probes worldwide. Compare theoretical estimates with actual RTT and hop-by-hop packet journeys with ISP geolocation.
Speed-of-light physics combined with cable distance to estimate latency. See the real-world overhead - how much slower actual routing is vs fiber limits.
Enter cities, IP addresses, or domain names - everything is resolved to coordinates with hosting location identification and optimal cable route.
Traceroute hops enriched with city, country, ISP. Phases auto-detected: local → ISP → CDN → backbone → submarine cable. Visual RTT timelines.
City names, IP addresses, or domains. The system resolves coordinates, identifies countries, and determines whether the route crosses oceans.
A graph algorithm finds the optimal route through landing points and submarine cables with accurate distance multipliers for each segment type.
One click launches RIPE Atlas probes for real ping and traceroute. See actual RTT, identify every router, and find where your packet enters submarine cables.
Validate routing assumptions, estimate latency budgets, troubleshoot unexpected paths.
Understand your ping. Compare the physical speed limit vs reality for any server.
Choose optimal PoP locations based on submarine cable topology and landing proximity.
Teach how the physical internet works. Visualize the gap between light speed and real routing.
Over 500 submarine cable systems span the world's oceans, with a combined length of approximately 1.4 million kilometers - enough to circle the Earth 35 times.
Submarine cables carry over 99% of intercontinental data traffic. Despite what many people think, satellites handle only a tiny fraction of global internet traffic.
Light travels through fiber optic cable at about two-thirds the speed of light in vacuum. A signal from London to New York takes approximately 28 milliseconds one way.
Modern submarine cables are designed to last 25 years. Cables are buried in the seabed near shores and laid directly on the ocean floor in deep water, protected by layers of steel and polyethylene.
The deepest submarine cables reach the abyssal plains at nearly 8,000 meters. At these depths, cables rest on the ocean floor under enormous pressure, beyond the reach of anchors and fishing gear.
Major transoceanic cable projects like 2Africa or PEACE cost over $1 billion. Investment comes from tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as telecom consortiums.
GeoCables is a research publication on the physical infrastructure of the global internet. We publish in-depth analyses of how data actually travels between countries - which submarine cables are used, what the measured latency is, and why it differs from the theoretical minimum.
Our research is grounded in real RIPE Atlas measurements collected from five probes we operate in Minsk, Almaty, Tbilisi, Jerusalem, and Sevastopol. We trace specific routes across 705 submarine cable systems and 1,900+ landing points cataloged by TeleGeography, then publish what we find.
Light through fiber travels at ~200,000 km/s - about two-thirds the speed of light in vacuum. That sets the theoretical floor for round-trip time. In practice, real RTT is 1.5-4× higher due to routing detours, optical amplifiers, protocol processing, peering between networks, and suboptimal path selection. Our research articles document this overhead on specific routes - measuring it, explaining it, and tracing it back to the cables and networks responsible.