A New Undersea Cable Will Carry Data Between Asia and Europe 40% Faster

The route planners did something unusual: they ignored the map everyone else uses. The new cable runs south of the traditional straits, adding 900 kilometres of length but avoiding the congestion points where a dozen older cables share the same seabed.

The first live test sent a packet round-trip between two capitals in 32 milliseconds less than the previous best route. For video calls and financial markets alike, that gap is meaningful.

The cable also carries dedicated science channels, reserved bandwidth for research telescopes that need to move terabytes of nightly observation data north.

“The 19,000-kilometre fibre route skips old chokepoints, and its first test packets landed with 32 milliseconds less latency.”