Tubular Totality

Image: The Tubes by Kendrick Erickson (CC BY 2.0)

Underwater fibre optic cables currently carry approximately 99% of global telecommunications and data traffic. In addition to Internet services, many important things in our lives such as food, clothing, electronics, news, transportation, health care, banking and global commerce are directly or indirectly made possible by this technology.

Continual advances in data compression and transmission techniques ensure there is plenty of capacity for future growth. Despite this, and the substantial installation costs, new cables are regularly laid to provide redundancy for uninterrupted connectivity.

But did you ever wonder where the technicians tunnel these magic sea tubes which help transport your trucked Internet? The following updated 2014 submarine communications cable map by Teleogeography shows current and planned global oceanic Internet cable connections. It really is happening under the sea.