Why is damage to undersea cables a big concern?

Your Instagram feed loads in a blink or a Zoom call from Mumbai to London stays clear, thanks to a network of undersea fibre-optic cables that carry over 95% of global data traffic.

- JATIN GROVER

Reports say two cables in the Red Sea have been cut. Why it happens and what it means. Mint explains:

1 Why are undersea cables important?

Lying on the ocean floor, undersea cables connect continents and carry huge amounts of data—like messages, videos, or calls—in seconds. According to Broadband India Forum, which represents tech giants such as Meta and Google that have invested in laying this network, there are 559 active subsea cables worldwide with a capacity of 16,000 terabits per second (Tbps), enough to stream millions of HD videos, make billions of WhatsApp messages, or support huge cloud services all at the same time. India has 17 subsea cables, BIF said. Google, Meta, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are working on more such projects.

2 What causes cuts and what's their impact?