Ventspils, Latvia

How the Internet Reaches Ventspils

Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia, situated in the historical Courland region along the Baltic Sea coast. Its coastal position is precisely what makes it a submarine cable landing point — the only one in the entire country. International internet traffic reaching Latvia arrives through Ventspils, making this city the single entry point for submarine cable connectivity into the country.

The Sweden-Latvia cable terminates here, carrying traffic across the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden. As Latvia hosts just one submarine cable landing point, all international traffic routed via submarine infrastructure passes through Ventspils.

The Cable Serving Ventspils

The Sweden-Latvia cable connects Ventspils to Sweden across a 391 km route under the Baltic Sea. Ready for service in 2005, it lands at two points on the Swedish side: Fårösund and Stockholm. This means internet traffic from Ventspils travels directly to Sweden — and through Stockholm onward into the broader European and global network. The cable forms the only submarine link between Latvia and any other country.

Regional Context

Latvia has a notably compact submarine cable footprint: a single cable landing at a single landing point. Ventspils is that sole terminus, serving the entire country's submarine-connected international traffic. There are no other landing points within Latvia to compare or contrast — the full national picture begins and ends here. With an average cable length of 391 km, Latvia's submarine connection is a relatively short Baltic crossing compared to intercontinental systems, reflecting the geography of the enclosed Baltic Sea region.

What This Means for Connectivity

Because Latvia has only one submarine cable — landing at only one location — all international traffic flowing through submarine infrastructure enters and exits the country via Ventspils. An outage on the Sweden-Latvia cable would directly affect the country's submarine-routed external connectivity. The destinations reachable via this cable are Sweden, with Stockholm serving as the primary onward hub into the wider European internet.

For anyone seeking to understand how internet traffic flows in the eastern Baltic region, Ventspils represents a clear example of a single-cable, single-landing-point national topology — where geography concentrates connectivity into one narrow corridor across the sea to Sweden. This structure shapes not only Latvia's international routing options but also the resilience profile of the country's internet infrastructure as a whole.