Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Around 99 percent of international data crosses oceans on glass fibre lying on the seabed, not by satellite. The figure is taken from International Cable Protection Committee, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a technology fact?

Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Undersea cables carry almost all intercontinental traffic

Around 99 percent of international data crosses oceans on glass fibre lying on the seabed, not by satellite Roughly 1.5 million kilometres of submarine cable are in service, each fibre carrying many wavelengths of light at once. A modern cable moves tens of terabits per second, far beyond any satellite constellation. Cable ships lay the repeaters and fibre in water up to about 8,000 metres deep, and bury shallow sections to protect them from anchors and trawler nets. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

International Cable Protection Committee

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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World Geography trivia Technology trivia

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Fibre optic cables transmit data using pulses of laser lightTotal internal reflection inside glass strands carries gigabits of internet data per second No internet link can beat the speed of lightLight in glass runs at about two thirds of its vacuum speed, setting a floor on any message crossing an ocean Repairing a broken undersea cable takes weeksA cable ship must find the fault, hook the damaged section from the seabed and splice in fresh fibre on deck The first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid across the ocean floor in 1858Queen Victoria and President James Buchanan exchanged telegrams across the Atlantic Ocean One mistyped route can take a country offlineNetworks trust each other's routing announcements, so a single wrong entry can redirect or swallow traffic The world ran out of IPv4 addresses in 2011The last five free blocks were handed to regional registries that February, forcing a move to 128-bit addressing

Tags: cables, internet, fibre-optics

Undersea cables carry almost all intercontinental traffic: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Around 99 percent of international data crosses oceans on glass fibre lying on the seabed, not by satellite. The figure is taken from International Cable Protection Committee, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.