Yes — it's GeoCables' own real-time measurement platform, embedded directly, not a recreation.

Why embed instead of building it in-house?

Commercial cable telemetry isn't public, and GeoCables already runs the real global vantage-point network this needs — embedding their live tool is more honest than approximating it.

No — the embed is free to view, though it does need an internet connection.

Yes — free, no download, in your browser.

Do satellites carry most internet traffic?

No. According to the International Cable Protection Committee, submarine cables carry the vast majority of international data traffic.

What causes cable outages?

The ICPC says roughly 70 to 80 percent of the 150 to 200 faults each year are accidental human activity, mainly fishing gear and ship anchors. The rest are natural hazards or technical failures.

Why can latency increase when a cable fails?

Traffic switches to another path, which can be longer or more congested, so signals travel farther and take more time to arrive.

Undersea Cables Map Screensaver

The Undersea Cables Map screensaver embeds GeoCables' live submarine-cable traffic map directly — real measured latency pings flying between live vantage points along the real undersea cable network, with a scrubbable timeline going back 90 days. It's free, needs an internet connection, and ESC exits.

How the Undersea Cables Map screensaver works

The saver embeds GeoCables' own live traffic tool at geocables.com, showing their real-time measurements directly.

Green dots are GeoCables' real measurement vantage points; faint cyan lines are the real submarine cable routes between them.

Flying "comets" are real latency pings in transit, coloured by round-trip time; click one to trace its real hop-by-hop route.

The time scrubber at the bottom rewinds up to 90 days of real history, with markers for past outages and major events.

Submarine cables and measuring latency

Submarine fibre-optic cables carry the vast majority of international data traffic, according to the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), which counts roughly 500 cable systems. A cable carries light signals through glass fibres, and the system includes amplifying repeaters along its length and landing stations on the coast where it connects to terrestrial networks. Hyperscale cloud companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft now invest in many new systems alongside telecom operators.

Latency is the time a signal takes to travel from one place to another, and round-trip time is the delay there and back. Light in typical single-mode fibre travels at roughly two thirds of its vacuum speed, about 4.9 microseconds per kilometre, so distance sets a floor on delay. A ping is a small test message that measures that round trip, and when a cable fails, traffic is rerouted over other paths, which often lengthens the delay.

Roughly 150 to 200 cable faults occur worldwide each year, and the ICPC attributes about 70 to 80 percent to accidental human activity, mainly fishing and ship anchors. The rest come from natural hazards or technical failures. Repairs need a cable ship; the ICPC cites one Baltic case in 2024 where two cables were repaired within two weeks. The map is a third-party service embedded in the page, and what appears is controlled by its operator.

A worked example

Press play on the time scrubber and watch comets sweep the Atlantic in real time — GeoCables' own live measurement traffic, not a simulation, coloured green for a healthy sub-50ms hop or red for a slow or broken one.

Settings & tips

This saver has no settings of its own — GeoCables' own on-screen controls (presets, layers, time scrubber) do the work.
Click Outage focus in the embedded map to jump straight to recent disruptions.
The "Map: GeoCables" credit in the corner links to the live site directly.

Frequently asked questions

Is this live data?: Yes — it's GeoCables' own real-time measurement platform, embedded directly, not a recreation.
Why embed instead of building it in-house?: Commercial cable telemetry isn't public, and GeoCables already runs the real global vantage-point network this needs — embedding their live tool is more honest than approximating it.
Is a key needed?: No — the embed is free to view, though it does need an internet connection.
Is it free?: Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
Do satellites carry most internet traffic?: No. According to the International Cable Protection Committee, submarine cables carry the vast majority of international data traffic.
What causes cable outages?: The ICPC says roughly 70 to 80 percent of the 150 to 200 faults each year are accidental human activity, mainly fishing gear and ship anchors. The rest are natural hazards or technical failures.
Why can latency increase when a cable fails?: Traffic switches to another path, which can be longer or more congested, so signals travel farther and take more time to arrive.

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