How Submarine Cables Keep UrbanX Gamers Globally Connected

When it comes to internet performance, most users focus on local fibre or routers—but what truly sets a great connection apart is how your traffic travels across the world. At UrbanX, we’ve invested directly in international capacity across key submarine cables to guarantee the lowest possible latency to global gaming and content platforms.

Submarine fibre optic cables carry 99% of the world’s international data traffic. For South Africa, these undersea links are vital infrastructure—and for us at UrbanX, they’re the backbone of how we deliver a lightning-fast, uninterrupted internet experience to our community of gamers, streamers, developers, and digital pros.

How UrbanX Uses Internet Cables in the Ocean

At UrbanX, we don’t just rely on generic upstream routes—we’ve purchased capacity on the most strategic cable systems that connect South Africa to the world. These underwater fibre optic cables were chosen specifically for their low-latency routes to where the world’s top game and content servers are hosted. Here’s what sets us apart:

1. Shortest Path = Lowest Latency
   We acquire bandwidth on subsea fibre optic cables that offer the shortest and fastest routes to key destinations. That means when you connect to a server in Europe, Asia, or the Americas, your data takes the most direct path—no unnecessary detours.

2. Direct International Peering
   We connect directly into the internet exchanges in those countries, allowing us to manage traffic flow and ensure optimal routing straight to the game servers and platforms you rely on.

3. Built-In Redundancy for Peace of Mind
   We maintain capacity across multiple underwater fibre cable systems. If one link is disrupted, your connection automatically switches to another path—no buffering, no downtime.

4. Gaming-First Focus
   Our cable usage isn’t generic. It’s tailored for online gaming and real-time services. The result? Faster response times, lower jitter, and globally competitive performance.

Why UrbanX’s Submarine Cable Strategy Matters for Gamers

We operate on a wide portfolio of major internet submarine cable systems serving South Africa, each selected for strategic routing advantages that directly benefit performance:

• Equiano: Ultra-low latency to Europe.

• SAFE: Best latency to Asia and Australasia.

• SACS: Fastest path to South America.

• 2Africa: High-speed connectivity from KZN to the Western Cape and Europe. Part of our WIOCC partnership.

• WACS, Seacom, EASSy, SAT-3/WASC: Provide redundancy and failover paths.

This diversified setup ensures:

• Blazing Speeds with fewer bottlenecks.

• Low Ping, Always, with 160ms depending on where you are in South Africa.

• Flawless Streaming without lag.

• Failover Ready routing during cable outages.

• Global Reach to key destinations like Frankfurt, Sydney, and São Paulo.

Our international cable footprint is optimised not just for reliability, but to deliver a seamless online experience across gaming, streaming, and high-demand applications.

Intelligent Routing with Always-On Redundancy

Fibre submarine cables are just one part of the equation. UrbanX also peers directly with top-tier game and content platforms, including those behind Apex Legends, League of Legends, and many more. This ensures fewer network “hops,” minimal jitter, and a stable, fast route from your device to the destination every time.

Our strong peering relationships allows us to maintain intelligent routing that prioritises gaming and real-time communication—ensuring your data takes the most efficient path.

And when the unexpected happens—such as undersea cable failures from anchors, earthquakes, or fishing activity—our network reroutes your traffic in real time using multiple active international paths. No delays. No dropped connections. Just reliable, uninterrupted service, even when the ocean doesn’t cooperate.

The Power of Internet Cables under the Sea

At UrbanX, we don’t take shortcuts when it comes to international speed and stability. From strategic capacity purchases on the world’s most advanced fibre cables under the sea to intelligent peering and always-on redundancy, we’ve built a global internet experience specifically for South African gamers and digital power users.

It’s not just fibre. It’s fibre backed by smart routing, unmatched uptime, and world-class performance.

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