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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteWhen a subsea cable fails, operators try to carry affected traffic over surviving links: another submarine cable, terrestrial fiber, or another available connection. That can preserve access, but it does not guarantee normal speeds or latency. The result depends on whether alternate routes are genuinely independent, reachable, and large enough for the extra traffic.
What happens when an undersea internet cable breaks?
A subsea cable is one link in a wider network connecting operators, countries, and data centers. A fault can interrupt transmission on that system without taking every internet route offline. Operators and cable-system stakeholders identify the fault, shift traffic where possible, and arrange physical repair as a separate workstream.
There is no single global switch that redirects all affected traffic. Networks are run by many organizations, and routing depends on their topology, agreements, available links, and operational coordination. The UK Parliament’s 2025 inquiry describes a system with many actors, automated protocols, uneven visibility, and the possibility of manual intervention. UK Parliament inquiry on subsea cable resilience and crisis preparedness.
How operators reroute traffic
1. Detect and localize the fault
Submarine cable systems monitor transmission and use supervisory information to identify failures. ITU-T guidance covers fault detection and localization, including tests performed from terminal stations. The exact diagnostic process depends on the cable system and its equipment; locating the problem for network purposes is distinct from recovering and repairing the physical cable section.
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2. Move traffic to a protection path or alternate route
If a system has a usable protection path, traffic can be switched onto it when the primary path loses transmission. Depending on the network, an alternate could be another subsea cable, a terrestrial fiber link across a border or region, or another connection. The Internet Society says the internet is designed so traffic can be automatically rerouted when one route fails, but this describes a general capability—not a guarantee that every network has an independent, available backup for every cable.
Route diversity matters. Two cables may appear to be separate but still share a landing point, corridor, or other vulnerable infrastructure. If the alternate path depends on the same failure point, it may not provide effective protection.
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3. Manage capacity on the surviving links
Rerouting changes where traffic travels; it does not create unlimited capacity. Operators may adjust routing, activate additional capacity, or coordinate with other network owners. Whether that is enough depends on the spare capacity and reachability of the surviving links.
For example, PNG DataCo reported on October 6, 2026, that traffic from the unavailable PPC-1 Madang–Sydney path was being carried through Port Moresby over KSCN and the Coral Sea Cable System. The company also said that activating a second 100G wavelength on the Port Moresby–Madang KSCN System 2 Express Link raised available capacity on that link from 100G to 200G to support regional and rerouted traffic. Those figures describe that link and incident, not a standard capacity target. PNG DataCo network outages and restoration update.
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4. Coordinate the response and communicate impact
Government authorities, operators, cable-system organizations, and repair-vessel teams can all have roles. Operators work to maintain traffic while the physical fault is diagnosed and a repair is arranged. Repair timing depends on the fault location, permits, vessel movements, and sea and weather conditions. Public reporting does not generally reveal every network’s routing policy, contracts, topology, or live spare-capacity figures.
What alternate routes can be used?
| Route type | How it can help | What determines whether it works |
|---|---|---|
| Another submarine cable | Can carry traffic around the failed cable system. | There must be a reachable route with sufficient usable capacity and meaningful independence from the failure point. |
| Terrestrial fiber | Can carry traffic overland to a different cable or network. | Cross-border or regional links must connect the affected network to the alternate route and have room for additional traffic. |
| Satellite or microwave | Can contribute to resilience in some geographies. | Availability and suitability depend on the local network and incident; these are not universal substitutes for subsea capacity. |
There is no universally best backup. Operators have to consider whether routes avoid shared vulnerabilities, how much capacity is actually available, whether the alternate geography changes latency, whether the route can reach the required networks, and whether it is operationally accessible during the incident.
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Why can the internet still be slow after traffic is rerouted?
Alternate routes may be longer, have less spare capacity, or attract traffic from several disrupted networks at once. The result can be higher latency, congestion, degraded performance, or intermittent access even when some connectivity remains.
West Africa’s March 2024 outage shows how extensive the impact can be: the Internet Society reported effects in 13 countries, ranging from degraded service to near-total internet outages. Local operators used cross-border terrestrial fiber to route traffic to the Equiano cable, which the report says experienced a fourfold increase in traffic. The incident also illustrated how route convergence can create a single point of failure even when multiple cables exist. Internet Society 2024 West Africa Submarine Cable Outage Report.
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In East Africa in May 2024, the Internet Society reported that other working submarine cables quickly became congested as they carried rerouted traffic. Liquid Intelligent Technologies and SEACOM worked together to provide alternate connectivity, while Safaricom and Airtel reported activating alternative connectivity. Internet Society 2024 East Africa Submarine Cable Outage Report.
Operators sometimes add capacity as well as change routes. Bayobab, an MTN Group subsidiary, said it recovered more than 3 Tbps of capacity across its footprint after the March 14, 2024 cable disruptions by activating new cables and alternative routes. That is the company’s reported figure, not a general measure of how much capacity can be restored in other outages. MTN Group and Bayobab statement, March 19, 2024.
What roles do governments and other links play?
Operators typically make network-level routing changes, but authorities may coordinate, oversee, or communicate during an incident. Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs said it verified that operators had completed rerouting after earthquake-related cable disruptions in December 2025 and January 2026. Its update also identified satellite sites, expanded microwave capacity, and more cables as resilience measures. This is an example of government involvement and local planning, not evidence that every outage uses those measures. Taiwan Ministry of Digital Affairs updates.
Terrestrial fiber can be particularly important when it connects an affected network to a different international cable. Satellite and microwave links may also help in some places, but the available sources do not establish that they can replace subsea links at comparable capacity in every incident.
Does rerouting mean the cable has been repaired?
No. Rerouting is a traffic-continuity measure; physical repair is a separate process. A network can keep carrying some traffic over alternate paths while the damaged cable remains out of service. Repair teams must locate, recover, and fix the affected section, with timing shaped by location, permissions, vessel availability, and marine conditions. ITU-T’s submarine-system design guidance discusses monitoring, protection paths, and fault localization. ITU-T Recommendation G Suppl. 41 (07/2024), Design guidelines for optical fibre submarine cable systems.
Quick Recap
What this means during an outage
- A cable failure does not automatically mean all internet access is lost; other routes may remain available.
- Whether rerouting succeeds depends on route diversity, connectivity between networks, coordination, and usable capacity.
- Service can remain slow or intermittent while traffic uses longer or congested alternatives.
- Restoring traffic and repairing the cable are related but distinct tasks.
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