Cusbay, United Kingdom

How the Internet Reaches Cusbay

Cusbay is a landing point in the United Kingdom, situated in the northern reaches of the British Isles. As a coastal terminus, it connects to the international internet through submarine cable infrastructure rather than relying solely on overland links. International traffic reaching Cusbay arrives via a domestic submarine cable that threads together several remote and island communities across the north of the UK.

Cusbay is served by a single submarine cable: the R100 North. This cable does not connect the UK to foreign countries — it is an intra-national route, linking Cusbay to other landing points within the United Kingdom. This makes Cusbay a terminus on a domestic connectivity corridor rather than an entry point for international transatlantic or intercontinental traffic.

The Cable Serving Cusbay

The R100 North cable is 224 km in length, with a readiness-for-service date of 2023 (draft status). It connects Cusbay to five other landing points, all within the United Kingdom: Baile Mòr, Bay of London, Belmont, Burravoe, and Crockness. The cable forms a network linking geographically dispersed and largely remote communities — several of which are on Scottish islands — into a shared submarine fibre route. At 224 km, it is considerably shorter than the UK average cable length of 1,451 km, reflecting its role as a regional, intra-national link rather than a long-haul international connection.

Regional Context

The United Kingdom hosts 42 submarine cables landing across 105 points, with the first cable entering service in 1990. Cusbay is one of the smaller, single-cable terminuses in this national picture, serving a specific northern corridor. Major landing points such as Bude (7 cables), Blackpool (3 cables), Southport (3 cables), Holyhead (2 cables), and Lowestoft (2 cables) carry far more diverse international and domestic traffic. Cusbay sits firmly at the localised end of the UK's submarine cable spectrum, connected to the wider network through the R100 North rather than through any direct international cable.

What This Means for Connectivity

Because Cusbay is served by a single cable — the R100 North — all submarine-delivered connectivity at this location flows through that one route. An outage on the R100 North would sever the submarine link entirely for Cusbay and the other communities it connects. The cable reaches only other UK landing points, meaning international traffic must travel onward through the broader UK terrestrial and submarine network before reaching destinations outside Britain.

The R100 North is fundamentally a regional connectivity project, designed to bring high-capacity fibre to remote northern UK communities that might otherwise depend on slower or less reliable terrestrial infrastructure. Understanding Cusbay's position — a single-cable, domestically-oriented terminus — illustrates how submarine cables serve not only international routing but also the internal geographic challenges of connecting island and coastal communities within a single country.