The 2023 Submarine Cable Globe

Every year the telecommunications company Telegeography releases a new, updated version of its Submarine Cable map. This map shows all the undersea telecommunication cables which carry data around the world.The 2023 Submarine Cable Map is now available. 

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. This includes all our telephone and Internet data.

This year's version of Telegeography's map plots 529 cable systems and 1,444 landing stations. The 2023 Submarine Cable map is available as a free download or you can purchase a wall map for $250. The landing site for the 2023 Submarine Cable Map features two interactive versions of the map. One of these is a Cesium powered 3D globe of the map. The other is a Mapbox story map which takes you on a guided tour of this edition's many inset maps. 

The 2023 version of the Submarine Cable Map includes a number of these inset maps which provide a close-up view of country landing stations and the cable systems which they serve around the world. The map also features a couple of Olaus Magnus inspired sea monsters and depictions of some of the cable laying and cable maintenance ships which service the global telecommunications network of undersea cables.

Each year's edition of the Telegeography Submarine Cable Map has a different design. You can explore Telegeography's Submarine Cable Maps for previous years just 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 a vintage map style containing sea monsters, cartouches and border illustrations.