Who supplies internet under the sea? World’s longest underwater cables

This week’s uproar about the damage to the C-Lion1 cable in the Baltic Sea has become, among other things, a reminder to people that much of the communication traffic in the world is routed through underwater cables.

While the 1,172km C-Lion1 is certainly a lengthy piece of infrastructure, it is by no means the longest underwater telecommunication cable out there.

Here are a few examples for comparison:

1️⃣2Africa is an underwater telecommunications cable currently under construction, running from Europe to the Middle East and circumnavigating the coast of Africa. Scheduled for completion by the end of 2024, it will span 45,000 kilometers.

2️⃣South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 (SEA-ME-WE3) is currently considered the longest underwater telecommunications cable in the world so far. With its length totaling 39,000 kilometers, SEA-ME-WE3 runs from the coast of Germany all the way to Australia, Japan and South Korea across the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

3️⃣The 28,000 kilometer-long Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) follows practically the same route as SEA-ME-WE3 albeit with fewer stops along the way. It runs from the coast of the UK to Japan but, unlike the previous example, has no extension to Australia.

4️⃣Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) is a 25,000 kilometer-long cable that links Europe with Southeast Asia via the Middle East.

5️⃣The Southern Cross Cable is an underwater communications cable that connects the US with Australia and New Zealand. It is 28,900 kilometers long.

6️⃣South Atlantic 3/West Africa (SAT-3/WASC) is an undersea cable that runs from Portugal to South Africa along the West African coast. It is 13,000 kilometers long.

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