How does a video reach you from across an ocean?

You press play and it starts in under a second, even though the video was uploaded on another continent. Follow its packets down the road: the internet's phone book, a street cabinet, light trapped in a glass fibre, routers passing packets like sorting offices, a cable ship laying cable, the deep-ocean floor where a cable as thick as a garden hose carries most of the world's intercontinental data, and the repeaters that keep the light alive. Then: why not satellites, why light in glass is too slow for some things, and what happens when a cable breaks. Pixel-art explainer; diagrams simplified and not to scale. Sources: TeleGeography; ICPC; NEC Technical Journal; IETF RFCs 1034, 9293, 8446; NEPTUNE Canada; atlantic-cable.com. #Internet #UnderseaCables #HowItWorks #Explained #PixelArt #TinyGears