The 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan destroyed more than half of the country's trans-Pacific subsea cables.

The ship responsible for repairing Japan's subsea cables after the 2011 tsunami was based in Yokohama and operated by KCS.

Subsea cables near Vietnam are frequently cut due to shallow waters and heavy fishing activity, with repairs sometimes taking months because repair ships are occupied elsewhere.

The U.S. military, along with other governments and high-frequency trading firms, operates its own private, non-public ("dark fiber") subsea cables.

Sweden immediately dispatched a patrol vessel to intercept the Chinese-flagged freighter suspected of cutting subsea cables.

A Chinese-flagged freighter recently cut internet connectivity to four NATO countries by dragging its anchor across subsea cables after switching off its ship locator.

Historically, national telecom monopolies like AT&T divided the oceans into zones and pooled resources, with one company's ship responsible for repairing all cables within a designated region.

A large number of subsea cables connecting the United States to the global internet land in a few concentrated areas, including New Jersey, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oregon.

Curacao serves as a key location for a subsea cable depot due to its strategic position in the Caribbean outside of the frequent hurricane path.

A volcanic eruption a few years ago severed the single subsea cable connecting Tonga to the internet, leaving the country completely offline.

Hyperscale companies like Meta and Google are the primary drivers of innovation in subsea cable technology, funding research and development to increase data capacity.

Military war games simulating a Chinese siege of Taiwan typically begin with China cutting Taiwan's subsea cables to isolate the island.

The cable repair industry perceives that hyperscalers like Google and Meta are prioritizing building redundant cable networks over investing in faster repair capabilities.

Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, all of Japan's international internet traffic was routed through only one or two remaining subsea cables.

Submarine landslides in the Congo River Delta periodically sever subsea cables, causing internet outages for entire regions in Africa.

Over the last eight years, hyperscale companies, particularly Meta and Google, have shifted from buying bandwidth to funding and owning their own subsea cables.

SubCom, a U.S.-based company that lays and repairs subsea cables, was formerly a part of AT&T.

Global data synchronization for services like TikTok, YouTube, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs relies on subsea cable infrastructure.