Submarine Cable Insights
Data-driven analysis of global internet routing, submarine cable performance, and network anomalies — based on real measurements.
North Korea: The Ping That Never Returns
North Korea's entire international internet is 1,024 IPs in 4 /24 blocks on one ASN (Star JV). On 23 April 2026 we fired 60 pings from 15 global probes at KP targets. Zero answered. Yet kcna.kp returns HTTP 200 in 540ms. ICMP is walled off at a Hong Kong node inside China Unicom.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and the Empty Caspian Seafloor
Five countries touch the Caspian. Zero submarine cables sit on its floor. On 23 April 2026 we ran nine traceroutes between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Every single packet went through Russia. The Trans-Caspian Fiber Optic Cable changes this in Q3 2026.
Turkmenistan's Entire Internet Runs Through Three Foreign IPs
Turkmenistan, a country of 6 million with four land neighbors, connects to the global internet through exactly three router IP addresses in three foreign operators. We ran 31 traceroutes on 21 April 2026. Iran reaches its neighbor via Istanbul — or Frankfurt. There is no third door.
Gibraltar's Submarine Cable: One Landing at the World's Busiest Strait
Gibraltar sits at one of the world's busiest maritime chokepoints — about 300 ships a day cross the strait. Yet only one submarine cable — the 15,000 km Europe India Gateway — actually lands on the Rock. Seven others cross the same strait without stopping. Why a chokepoint isn't always a hub.
Iran's Internet Map: 7 Landing Stations, 6 Cables, and a 175 ms Trip to Next-Door Kuwait via Italy
7 submarine cable landings on two coasts, but global trunks bypass Iran. RIPE Atlas traces show Iran-Kuwait routing through Frankfurt and Milan: 175 ms for 250 km.
Indonesia: 143 Landing Points and the World's Most Complex Cable Network
Indonesia has 143 submarine cable landing points and 72 cables — 42 domestic, 30 international. How the Palapa Ring, the Batam megahub, and Big Tech investments connect 17,000 islands to the world.
Japan: 70 Landing Stations and the World s Most Earthquake-Proof Cable Network
Japan has 70 submarine cable landing stations and 50+ cables — more than any country. Our monitoring data: 18 ms to Korea, 106 ms transpacific, 300+ ms from Europe. Six alerts in 30 days, all self-resolving.
Tunisia in 70 ms: six cables and the Italian Sparkle gateway
Measured from four Geocables probes to four real Tunisian IPs on 12 April 2026: median RTT 70 ms, three of four paths run through Italian carrier Sparkle. Why Tunisia's six submarine cables are reached through one — and what Medusa 2026 changes.
1969 ms to Rarotonga: A Week of Congestion on the Manatua Cable
On April 11, 2026, a packet from Minsk to the Cook Islands took 1969 ms. Eight days of measurements show a congestion pattern on the Manatua cable that our monitor never flagged — because it lives past the landing point, inside the only network serving 17,500 people on fifteen islands.
Cuba: 150 km from Florida, 10,000 km to the Internet — Where Geopolitics Decides Your Ping
Cuba sits 150 km from Florida but its internet takes a 10,000 km detour through Venezuela. We monitor Cuba's only civilian submarine cable ALBA-1 every 12 hours — real latency data, route analysis, and the geopolitics of Caribbean connectivity.
Tonga: One Cable, One Volcano — How a Pacific Island Nation Lost Its Internet for 38 Days and What It Looks Like Now
Tonga had one submarine cable when a massive volcanic eruption severed it in 2022. The country was offline for 38 days. GeoCables traces the 339ms route from the Middle East through 5 submarine cables to reach this Pacific kingdom.