Australia is one of the most internet dependent nations on earth, yet almost none of that connectivity is protected. Thirteen fibre optic cables, most no thicker than a garden hose, carry over 99% of our international data. Click each dot to see where they land, where they go, and how much capacity they carry. Notice how concentrated the landing points are Perth and Sydney bear almost all the load.
Data sources: TeleGeography Submarine Cable Map (2024); Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Between 2010 and 2023, Australia’s international internet traffic grew by nearly 3,000%. In the same period, the number of active cables grew from four to thirteen. The gap between those two lines is the story. Hover over any year to compare traffic volume against cable count. Pay attention to what happens after COVID-19 demand surged permanently, but infrastructure did not.
Data sources: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2020); ITU Measuring Digital Development (2023); TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Research Service (2024).
A cable fault happens somewhere in the world roughly every four days. Most are caused by fishing trawlers and ship anchors dragging across the ocean floor an entirely preventable problem that has barely improved in a decade. But look at the top of each bar. The dark red slice representing suspected sabotage is small but it is growing every year. Use the filter below to isolate individual causes and track their trend.
Data sources: International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) Annual Report (2023); TeleGeography Submarine Cable Almanac (2023).
These are not hypothetical risks. Every incident shown here is real, documented and costed. The size of each dot represents the estimated economic damage in USD millions. The Red Sea cables cut in 2024 took 60 days to repair and caused an estimated $200 million in losses. Hover over each dot for the full picture. Now consider that Australia has no dedicated cable repair ship of its own.
Data sources: International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) incident database; Carter, B. (2023). Submarine cable security. Journal of Information Warfare; Reuters, BBC News (2024).
When people talk about satellite internet as a backup for cables, they are not looking at the numbers. Every undersea cable serving Australia combined carries 252 terabits per second. Starlink, our most capable satellite alternative, carries around 12. That is less than 5% of our cable capacity. If the cables went down tomorrow, satellite could not come close to filling the gap.
Data sources: TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Research Service (2024); SpaceX Starlink capacity estimates, Quilty Space (2023); NBN Co Corporate Plan 2024.