Content and cloud networks now account for three-quarters of used international bandwidth, while Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon own, co-own or buy capacity on a growing share of the 600-plus submarine cable systems carrying over 99 per cent of data between countries, a private map hidden below the wireless internet
Almost every message, video call and cloud file that crosses an ocean travels through a bundle of glass fibres thinner than a garden hose lying on the seabed. A small number of tech giants are quietly reshaping who owns them.