Yellow/AC-2

VSN

L TG

N-W

este

rn E

urop

e

VSNL TGN-Pacific

VSNL TGN-Pacific

VSNL TGN-Atlantic

VSNL TGN-Atlantic

VMSCS

TW1

TPC 5

TPC 5

TPC 5

TPC 5

TIS

TGN TIC

TAT-14

TAT-14

TAT-14

TAT-12/13

TAT-12/1

Sout

hern

Cro

ss

Southern Cross

Southern Cross

Sout

hern

Cro

ss

Sout

hern

Cro

ss

Southern Cross

Southern Cross

SAC/LAN

SAC/LAN

SAC/LAN

SAC/

LAN

SAC/

LAN

SAC/LAN

SAm-1

SAm-1

SAm-1

SAm-1

SAm

-1

SAm

-1

SeaMeW

e-4

SeaMeW

e-4

SeaMeWe-4

SeaMeW

e-3

SeaM

eWe-

3

SeaM

eWe-

3

SeaMeW

e-3

SeaMeWe-3

SAS-1

SAT-

3/W

ASC

SAT-

3/W

ASC

SAFE

PAC

PAC

PC-1

PC-1 PC-1

NorthStar

MAC

MAC

MedNautilus

Med Cable

Maya-1

Kuwait-Iran

KJCN

JASURAUS

Japan-U.S.

Japan-U.S.Japan-U.S.

i2icn

Hibernia Atlantic

Hibernia Atlantic

Guam-Philippines

Globe

Net

GlobeNet

GlobeNet

GlobeNetGl

obeN

et

GCN

Georgia-Russia

FOG

FLAG/Reach North Asia

Loop

FLAG FALCON

FLAG

Eur

ope-

Asia

FLAG Europe-Asia

FLAG Europe-Asia

FLAG

Eur

ope-

Asia

Fibralink

FA-1

FA-1

FARICE

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

Dumai-MelakaCable System

Columbus-III

China-U.S.

China-U.S.

China-U.S.

C2CcnC2Cc

n

C2Ccn

C2Cc

n

BSFOCS

BICS

Bahamas 2

Atla

ntis-

2

Atla

ntis-

2

Atla

ntis-

2

AC-1

AC-1

AC-1

ARCOS

Apollo

Apollo

APCN

-2

APCN-2

APCN

APCN

Antilles-Crossing

Americas-II

Americas-II

ALPAL-2

Alaska United West

Alaska United East

Australia-Japan

Qatar-U.A.E.

Bharat LankaCable System

Cayman-Jamaica

Atlas Offshore

Kodiak Kenai

WARF

Dhiraagu

MCN

Gemini–Bermuda

Matrix Cable System

AAG

AAG

AAG

ACS Alaska–Oregon

Caucasus Online Poti–Varna

CFX-

1

Gondwana-1

HSCS

SEA

KELTRA-2

MENA

MIC-1

Russia–JapanCable Network

EASSy

TE North

Telstra Australia–Hawaii

TEAMS

TPE

TPE

VSNL TGN Intra-Asia

VSNL TGN In

tra-A

sia

Greenland Connect

DANICE

SMPR-1

Hibernia Atlantic

AAG

APCN

ATLANTIC OCEAN

PACIFIC OCEAN

Gulf ofMexico

ArabianSea

SAO TOME & PRINCIPE

INDIACHINA

CHINA

JAPAN JAPAN

AUSTRALIAAUSTRALIA

Guam

AFRICA

UNITEDSTATES

Mumbai

Odessa

Chennai

New York

Los Angeles

Miami

Seattle

Honolulu

Rio de Janeiro

Anchorage

Marseille

Hong KongTaipei

Shanghai

Sydney

Auckland

Luanda

Porto Novo

Djibouti

San Juan

Cayenne

Libreville

Gibraltar

Athens

Kuwait City

Muscat

Panamá

Doha

Mogadishu

Cape Town

Dar es Salaam

Caracas

Algiers

Accra

Dublin

Abidjan

Maputo

Lisbon

Dakar

Brussels

Kingston

Suva

Jakarta

Singapore

Manila

Noumea

Perth

Abu Dhabi

SeaMeW

e-3

JASURAUS

NEWZEALAND

NEWZEALAND

Guam

Hong KongTaipei

Shanghai

Pusan

Sydney

Auckland

Suva

Jakarta

Singapore

Manila

Noumea

Perth

Port HeadlandPort Headland

GWEN

60m

12m

Cables with a minimum capacity of 5 giga bytes a second under construction or working year-end 2007

Fibre-optic submarinecable systems

The internet’s undersea world

In-service

Planned

Damaged

India

Pakistan

The main countries affected in Wednesday’s event

50500500 10Capacity as of December 2007 (gbps)

1

1 - 49

50 - 199

200 - 999

1,000+

Estimated international bandwidth usage by country (gbps)

Sã

Colombo

SOURCE: TELEGEOGRAPHY.COM SUBMARINE CABLE MAP 2008. INTERNET STATISTICS FROM INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM

The longest submarine cables

SeaMeWe-3

Southern Cross

China-US

FLAG Europe-Asia

South America-1

39,000 km

30,500 km

30,476 km

28,000 km

25,000 km

Tar-soaked nylon yarn

Taiwan, 2006Site of the previous biggest cable disaster, when under-ocean landslide cut nine cables between Taiwan and the Philippines, disabling net access for weeks

A ship’s anchor accidentally cuts two cables, SeaMeWe4 and FLAG Europe-Asia, reducing internet capacity in Asia by 75%

The first intercontinental telephony submarine cable system, TAT-1, connected North America to Europe in 1958 and had an initial capacity of 640,000 bytes per second. Since then, total trans-Atlantic cable capacity has soared to over 7 trillion bps

The vast majority of the world’s communications are not carried by satellites but an altogether older technology: cables under the earth’s oceans. As a ship accidentally wipes out Asia’s net access, this map shows how we rely on collections of wires of less than 10cm diameter to link us all together

The world’s cables in bandwidthCables of this strength are typically 69 mm in diameter and weigh over 10,000 kilograms a kilometer. In deeper waters, lighter and less insulated cables are used

Internet users affected by theAlexandria accident

World cable capacityThe SeaMeWe-3 system from Norden in Germany to Keoje, South Korea connects 32 different countries with 39 landing points

Submarine cable operators light (turn on) capacity on their systems to sell bandwidth to other carriers. Carriers buy extra capacity, mainly to hold in reserve. On the trans-Atlantic route 80% of the bandwidth is purchased, but only 29% is used

72%Internet %

7.1 tbpsTotal capacity

2.1 tbpsUsed capacity

5.7 tbpsPurchased capacity

6mEgypt

4.7mSaudiArabia

1.7mUAE

0.8mKuwait

0.3mQatar

0.2mBahrain

Alexandria, Wednesday

Optical fibres

Silicon gel

Copper sheath

Ultra-high strengthsteel wires

Buffering material(plastic/steel)

Galvanised armour wires

Nylon yarn bedding

Cross-section of a cable

1%Telephone calls

27%Private networks, owned by companies

What makes up“used capacity”?

Capacity in terabytesa second

INDIAN OCEAN

ASIAAsia has an enormous number of internet users: 501 million of the world’s 1.3 billion users. And it’s growing by 882% per year