Almost all of the world’s internet traffic does not travel by satellite but through fibre-optic cables lying on the ocean floor, a hidden web of wires crossing the deepest parts of the sea to connect the continents.

The excellent mass of documents that crosses in between continents treks via fiber-optic wires on the seabed, not via satellites. Quotes ranked the share at someplace in between 95 and also 99 per dime of global website traffic. Satellites, for with one voice their conduct, tote the rest.

The word to watch is “with one voice.” The number is about website traffic that crosses seas, not every byte the net openings.

International website traffic, not with one voice website traffic

The majority of of what you tote out virtual never goes foreseeable the ocean flooring. The video clip you stream, the internet page you lot, the document you responsive are super intermittently stored on a server in your super own nation or cached nearest by a content delivery network, a contraption that retains matches of vibrant content chummy to the human beings checking for it. That documents treks over land, or a fast distance, and also never touches a submarine wire.

The 95 to 99 per dime number applies namely to global, intercontinental website traffic: an e-mail to Japan, a video clip call to Australia, a internet page hosted on a server in another hemisphere. For that website traffic, the wires tote out virtually with one voice the job. So the factoid is relevant about the part it is actually detailing, and also the looser phrasing, “with one voice the universe’s net website traffic,” overemphasizes it. A excellent bargain of the universe’s net website traffic keeps regional and also never crosses a sea at with one voice.

It is alike worth construing in which the intermittently-estimated “99 per dime” comes from. The telecommunications research firm TeleGeography, which others identify for the number, has traced it recommend in part to a singular US Federal Papers Payment statistic mirroring satellites hauled a fraction of a per dime of US global possible, tempted from documents that is presently extra than a years don. The broad run out result is sound. The meticulous number is softer than its rep says, which is why the truthful variation is a hodgepodge.

What the wires actually are

The physical reality is stranger than the depiction. The queues lugging the mass of intercontinental documents are, in the deep ocean, about as thick as a yard hose.

According to the research firm TeleGeography, which tracks the global network, there were about 570 submarine wire mechanisms in solution in 2025 via another 81 intended, extra in-solution mechanisms than in any year in days gone by 2 decades, spanning nicely over a million kilometres in unabbreviated. Each carries hair-thin glass fibres down which documents treks as pulses of light. Straight the seacoast, in which angling machine, supports and also currents posture a peril, the wires are armoured and also covert under the seabed. Out in the deep ocean, throughout the abyssal levels, they are thinner and also totally lie on the bottom, unburied, since little down there is conceivable to vex them.

So the “masked internet crossing the deepest parts of the sea” is particular. It is totally thinner, and also extra unveiled on the deep seabed, than the phrase says. Destruction is humdrum rather than uncommon: mistakes run to about 200 a year international, multitudinous concocted by angling and also fastening, and also a fleet of mend ships exists to situate and also recover them.

Why under the sea rather than in orbit

This is the part that belongs on a publication about hole, since the obtrusive misgiving is why the foundation of the global net rests on the ocean flooring rather than in the firmament.

The reply is possible and also physics. A singular vibrant wire contraption can tote hundreds of terabits of documents per 2nd, and also the latest versions run greater still. The unabbreviated possible of the universe’s satellites, throughout every operator, is a little fraction of what the undersea network carries. Sector price price quotes for 2026 ranked global subsea wire possible in the thousands of terabits per 2nd and also unabbreviated satellite possible at a couple of 10s. The hole is not a rounding flaw. It is extra than 2 acts of dimension.

Closeness is the other determinant. A signal to a satellite in geostationary orbit treks about 36,000 kilometres upward and also the super same recommend down, which contains grasp off zero amount of layout can dislodge. Light via a wire swipes a much shorter training course. For the high-slice, devalued-grasp off website traffic that economic mechanisms, cloud treatments and also video clip phone refers to as rely on, the wire victories on both counts.

Performs the satellite boom readjust this

The apex of devalued Earth orbit constellations is the determinant this factoid is worth revisiting rather than totally being discerned.

Mechanisms such as SpaceX’s Starlink, via extra than 7,000 satellites in orbit, and also adversaries including Amazon’s Kuiper and also Eutelsat OneWeb, sit much better to Earth than the don geostationary satellites, which incisions the grasp off sharply and also administers satellite net sincerely usable for day-to-day openings. That is a real readjust, and also it has already switched over relationship for secluded regions, ships, airplane and also calamity regions in which betting a wire is impossible.

What it has not lugged out is chummy the possible hole. Even the multitudinous enthusiastic price price quotes for Starlink’s unabbreviated possible over the next couple of years remain nicely listed under what the wire network already carries, and also a singular new-made wire can match a huge share of an entire constellation. The view throughout the arenae is that satellites are coming to be a amplify and also a fallback, not a substitute: they add reach in which wires cannot go and also sturdiness once wires are gouge, yet the heavy lifting of intercontinental documents keeps undersea. The framing significantly marketed is hybrid, sea and also hole together, rather than one displacing the other.

What to keep from the factoid

The crud grips. The rapports in between continents run via fiber on the seabed, not via the firmament, and also they have for decades. The wires are thinner, extra multiple and also extra often wrecked than multitudinous human beings image, and also they elude satellites on both possible and also grasp off by margins that are not about to go away.

The one modification worth lugging is the scope. It is global website traffic that counts on the wires, not every click and also stream. A lot of the net never runs away residence. The part that crosses an ocean virtually always executes so undersea, and also is conceivable to keep imposing so even as the firmament fills up via satellites.

Accumulated via AI assistance. Weighed by the Gain Tech Less utility editorial team before publication. Explore our editorial arrangement and also about internet page.

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