Sunday, June 21, 2020

The 2020 Submarine Cable Map



Every year Telegeography releases a map of the current network of undersea telecommunication cables around the world. The 2020 Submarine Cable Map has now been released.

Subsea cables carry telecommunication signals under the oceans, communicating information between different countries and regions of the world. In the 19th Century the first submarine cables were laid to carry telegraphy traffic. In the 21st Century submarine cables carry digital data, which includes telephone and Internet data.

This year's map shows the location of 447 cable systems around the world and 1,194 landing stations. The 2020 map shows the planned 2Africa cable. At 37,000km in length, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest submarine cable networks. It will connect 16 countries in Africa and five countries in Europe. The cable is expected to be working by 2023/4.

You can explore Telegeography's Submarine Cable Maps for previous years by changing the year in the map's URL. For example, one of my favorite Telegeography maps can be found at http://submarine-cable-map-2015.telegeography.com/. This 2015 map was inspired by medieval and renaissance cartography and features not only a vintage map style but sea monsters, cartouches and border illustrations.

No comments: