Digital Cabo Verde -  Sea Cables

Submarine cables dominate and will continue to dominate

Cabo Verde's strategy to position itself as a digital hub through submarine cables is actually very much future-oriented. Here's why:

About 99% of all intercontinental internet traffic goes over submarine cables Kentik, not satellites. Despite media hype about satellite constellations like Starlink, the capacity and latency limitations of satellite communication technology mean that fiber optic submarine cables are the dominant method for moving large volumes of data worldwide Kentik.

Massive capacity differences

The capacity gap is enormous. Modern submarine cables like MAREA, a joint project by Microsoft, Facebook, and Telxius spanning the Atlantic Ocean, has a capacity of up to 200 terabits per second New Space Economy. In comparison, SpaceX's entire Starlink constellation claims nearly 24 Tbps of capacity—a little less than one pair on the MAREA submarine cable Telegeography. Even with projected future growth, Starlink's total capacity is projected to reach up to 10 Tbps in the future New Space Economy, which is still far below a single modern submarine cable.

Investment is actually increasing, not decreasing

There are currently 81 new cable systems in the planning phases, and the total value of new cables entering service between 2024 and 2026 is expected to surpass $10 billion Equinix. Global investment in subsea cables is expected to exceed USD 10 billion by 2026, with the Asia Pacific accounting for the lion's share due to surging demand for data centers and cloud services Subsea Cables.

Complementary, not replacement technology

The consensus among infrastructure experts is that satellites and submarine cables are complementary, not competitive technologies:

Satellites will supplement subsea infrastructure by providing emergency communications during disaster recovery Equinix. Satellites play a critical role in extending connectivity to remote and underserved regions. They also serve as a reliable backup for emergency communications and facilitating first response efforts during natural disasters Equinix.

Future architecture: hybrid, not satellite-only

The region's future connectivity architecture may resemble a multi-layered web. Dense terrestrial fiber could satisfy urban centers, subsea cables could connect global hubs, and satellites could fill in the rural and last-mile gaps Subsea Cables.

Why satellites cannot replace cables

1. Capacity: Satellites cannot match the data volumes of submarine cables
2. Cost per bit: New multicore submarine cable technology will reduce the total cost per bit of data transfer Kentik
3. Reliability: Submarine cables are generally unaffected by most environmental conditions once laid on the seafloor, while the world's internet is carried by many submarine cables, so even if one cable gets damaged, data can be rerouted through other cables New Space Economy
4. Existing infrastructure: 99% of the data travels between economies and continents through undersea cables APNIC Blog

Strategic value for Cabo Verde

For Cabo Verde specifically, positioning as a submarine cable hub is strategically sound because:

• Geographic position: Located between Africa, Europe and the Americas, Cabo Verde sits on natural routing paths for transatlantic cables
• Cable landing stations: These become valuable infrastructure assets that generate long-term revenue
• Data center opportunities: Cable landing points attract data centers, which require the massive capacity only cables provide
• Redundancy value: As more traffic flows through cables, having multiple cable landings increases resilience

Conclusion: Cabo Verde's submarine cable strategy is not only future-oriented but well-aligned with global infrastructure trends. Satellites serve important niche roles (remote areas, backup connectivity, mobile applications), but they will not replace the submarine cable backbone that carries the vast majority of global internet traffic. The investment boom in new submarine cables demonstrates that the industry sees cables as the foundation of connectivity for decades to come.