Oak Harbor, WA, United States

Oak Harbor, WA: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Oak Harbor is a city situated on northern Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington State, on the Pacific coast of the United States. As an island community, its connection to submarine cable infrastructure reflects both its geographic position and its proximity to the broader Pacific Northwest maritime corridor. One submarine cable lands at Oak Harbor, linking it to submarine cable networks that extend into neighboring Canada.

That cable, AmeriCan-1, establishes a short but distinct cross-border link between the United States and Canada. With a length of just 140 km, it represents a regional rather than intercontinental connection, serving the corridor between the two countries along the northern Pacific coastline. The cable reached its ready-for-service status in 1999 and remains the sole submarine cable infrastructure associated with Oak Harbor.

Cables Landing at Oak Harbor, WA

AmeriCan-1 is a 140 km submarine cable that reached ready-for-service status in 1999. It connects landing points in the United States and Canada, forming a short regional link across the maritime boundary between the two countries. With Oak Harbor as one of its United States terminations, AmeriCan-1 facilitates direct undersea connectivity between the two neighboring nations along the northern Pacific rim. The cable carries a draft status designation.

Regional Context

Within the United States, Oak Harbor ranks among the smaller submarine cable landing points by cable count. Major landing points such as Boca Raton, FL and San Juan, PR each host eight cables, while Hermosa Beach, CA, Kapolei, HI, and Myrtle Beach, SC each accommodate five. Oak Harbor, with a single cable, sits within the top 69 percent of the country's 160 landing points by cable count, reflecting the broad and distributed nature of the United States submarine cable network across 113 cables.

Network Role

Oak Harbor functions as a single-cable terminus rather than a multi-cable hub, hosting exclusively AmeriCan-1 and the short-haul United States–Canada corridor it serves. This positions Oak Harbor as a specialized endpoint supporting regional connectivity between two of North America's closest trading and communications partners, rather than a gateway for intercontinental traffic. The cable's modest 140 km length underscores its role as a localized cross-border link within the densely interconnected North American telecommunications environment.

In the broader submarine cable graph of the United States—where 113 cables land across 160 points—Oak Harbor's presence illustrates how even compact, regionally focused landing points contribute to the overall resilience and geographic spread of undersea connectivity along the Pacific Northwest coastline.