In our WiFi world the Internet still depends on undersea cables

A bug in CloudFlare

Recently a digital blackout in Tonga – caused by the severing of the country’s only undersea cable – generated widespread recognition of the submerged systems our connected world depends upon.

Not many people realise that undersea cables transport nearly 100% of transoceanic data traffic. These lines are laid on the very bottom of the ocean floor. They’re about as thick as a garden hose and carry the world’s Internet, phone calls and even TV transmissions between continents at the speed of light.