Meta plans globe-spanning sub-sea web cable

Meta has introduced plans to construct a 50,000km (31,000 mile) sub-sea cable internationally.

The tech large mentioned Challenge Waterworth – connecting the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and different areas – would be the world’s longest underwater cable mission when accomplished.

Meta, which owns Fb, Instagram and WhatsApp, has sought to increase its presence in expertise past social media, together with in synthetic intelligence (AI) and the infrastructure that helps it.

It mentioned its new cable mission would offer “industry-leading connectivity” to 5 main continents and assist assist its AI tasks.

“This mission will allow higher financial co-operation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open alternatives for technological improvement in these areas,” Meta mentioned in a weblog put up.

The cable could be the longest thus far that makes use of a 24 fibre-pair system, giving it a better capability, in accordance with the agency.

Sub-sea cables have turn into more and more vital as they supply the means to energy quite a lot of digital companies and switch knowledge worldwide at pace.

One regularly-cited statistic suggests greater than 95% of the world’s web visitors is transferred via undersea cables.

Telecommunications market analysis agency TeleGeography says there are at the moment greater than 600 publicly-known sub-sea cable programs worldwide.

This consists of the 2Africa cable, backed by Meta and cell community operators resembling Orange, Vodafone and China Cell, which hyperlinks three continents and spans 45,000km.

Tech corporations that function main suppliers of net companies have invested large sums in cable infrastructure.

Google mentioned in 2024 it could construct the primary sub-sea cable connecting Africa and Australia, and introduced a $1bn funding to spice up connectivity to Japan with two new sub-sea cables within the Pacific Ocean.

“Over the previous decade there was a shift through which these cables are more and more laid by massive expertise firms,” Professor Vili Lehdonvirta of the Oxford Web Institute informed the NUZTO.

He mentioned that is in distinction to the previous, the place underwater cables had been laid and financed by massive teams of nationwide telecoms corporations, resulting from their appreciable funding wants.

Prof Lehdonvirta mentioned this displays the rising dimension and place of huge tech corporations to have the ability to fund such infrastructure independently – one thing that “could also be vital to coverage makers involved with focus in digital markets”.

Telecoms and expertise {industry} analyst Paolo Pescatore mentioned it spoke to Meta’s ambitions.

“Meta has proven a powerful need to personal extra of the connectivity slice,” he informed the NUZTO.

“This can be a additional demonstration because it seeks to leapfrog rivals in offering customers with an distinctive expertise by tightly integrating {hardware}, software program, platform and its rising aspirations in connectivity,” he added.

The rising significance of sub-sea cables has elevated issues over their vulnerability to assaults or accidents.

Following a spate of severed cables, consultants have mentioned undersea communications infrastructure is a rising area for geopolitical tensions and battle.

Nato launched a mission in January to extend surveillance of ships within the Baltic Sea after injury to essential undersea cables final 12 months.

A UK parliamentary committee not too long ago issued a name for proof concerning the UK’s resilience within the face of potential disruption.

This mentioned pointed to rising concern over “Russian and Chinese language capabilities to carry undersea infrastructure in danger – significantly during times of heightened pressure or battle”.

Meta mentioned in its weblog put up asserting Challenge Waterworth it could lay its cable system as much as 7,000 meters deep and “use enhanced burial strategies in high-risk fault areas, resembling shallow waters close to the coast, to keep away from injury from ship anchors and different hazards”.

Prof Lehdonvirta mentioned the mission appeared to diverge from extra established routes, resembling by skipping Europe and China and avoiding “geopolitical hotspots” within the Suez canal and South China sea.

And he mentioned connecting the US with main, contested markets within the Southern hemisphere might be seen as “bolstering US financial and infrastructural energy overseas”.