Meaning
The submarine cable infrastructure Data Product exposes TeleGeography public map geometry through two Channels: cable routes and landing points. Either channel can be added separately, or both can be selected when creating a map. Cable parts retain separate feature identities and share a cable-system ID; this preserves split routes around the date line.
Interpretation
Lines are schematic, and landing points are approximate. A landing point is not a verified station-building coordinate. The upstream is_tbd flag remains visible. Cable details provide owners, suppliers, ready-for-service date/year, planned status and explicit connected landing points. Relationships come from provider records, never from line proximity. Capacity is not supplied.
length_km is the provider-reported length of the entire cable system; each geometry part shares that value. Do not sum it across parts or derive it from the schematic map line. The original length text is retained; unknown or unparseable values have no numeric length. Source-record links open the provider's detailed map pages.
Acquisition and presentation
The shared snapshot pipeline starts from the two fixed geometry endpoints. Cable geometry expands to one fixed-host detail request per unique cable ID, with up to 1,000 systems and 12 concurrent requests. A missing, mismatched or invalid detail response fails the whole cable refresh, preserving its previous version. No partially enriched snapshot is published. Empty or invalid responses fail the refresh and preserve the committed version. Refresh cadence is weekly while the channel is used on a map. Existing Layer styles remain user-owned. Initial line styles map the provider colors observed when the connector was introduced; unrecognized new colors use the neutral fallback and remain available in source_color for styling.
Provenance and reuse
Attribution: TeleGeography.
Public endpoint access does not establish a licence to redistribute the database. TeleGeography's FAQ directs commercial data users to obtain a licence. Its CC BY-SA statement about maps and screenshots must not be applied to the database automatically. The Provider therefore records permission_required, with inline attribution.