How Submarine Cables Made Tiny Singapore a Global Internet Hub
There are 28 submarine cables landing in Singapore, with another 13 on the way. That’s more than most entire continents. How did a city-state smaller than most metropolitan areas become a global internet node?
It Started in 1870
Singapore’s role as a communications hub predates the internet by over a century. The first submarine telegraph cable landed here in 1870, connecting London to Australia via India and Singapore. The British Empire needed a relay point between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, and Singapore sat right at the chokepoint.
This hasn’t changed in 150 years. The technology evolved from telegraph to fibre optic, but the geography stayed the same.
Why Singapore and Not Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur?
Three reasons:
1. Political Stability
Submarine cables are critical infrastructure. A single cut can disrupt a country’s entire internet. Cable owners want to land them in jurisdictions that are: - Politically stable (no coups, no wars) - Legally predictable (clear property rights) - Geologically safe (no earthquakes, no tsunamis)
Singapore scores perfectly on all three. Malaysia and Indonesia have more seismic activity and more political uncertainty.
2. Neutral Territory
Singapore is politically neutral. Malaysia’s TM and Indonesia’s Telkom are both state-owned incumbents with national interests. Would you want your cable to land in a country where the government controls the ISP? Singapore’s openness and neutrality make it a safe choice for everyone.
3. Government Strategy
Starting in the 1990s and accelerating with the Digital Connectivity Blueprint, Singapore actively courted cable landings. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA): - Streamlined landing permits - Invested in data centre infrastructure - Created the Singapore Internet Exchange (SGIX) - Offered tax incentives for content providers to host locally
This strategy worked. Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Microsoft all have data centres in Singapore, which means content is served locally instead of traversing undersea cables.
Without local caches, your Netflix request would travel to Hong Kong or Japan and back. With local servers, it stays entirely within Singapore.
The Result
Singtel is the biggest beneficiary of this. They own or co-own many of these cables, sell transit to half of Southeast Asia, and have amassed 100,000 IP prefixes — 10x more than any neighbour. The tiny island is the region’s internet landlord.
Why This Matters for Your Connection
When you load a website as a Singtel customer: 1. Your request travels over fibre to the exchange (~1ms) 2. If the content is cached in Singapore (Google, Netflix), it’s served locally 3. If not, it goes via one of 28 submarine cables to the destination 4. The path is short, well-provisioned, and has multiple redundancies
That’s why your ping to Google DNS is 4ms. You’re living on top of one of the best-connected pieces of land on earth.