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Back in November , webroke the newsthat Meta — owner of Facebook , Instagram , and WhatsApp , with gazillion of usersaccountingfor 10 % of all fixed and 22 % of all roving dealings — was closelipped to announcing piece of work on a major new , $ 10 billion+ subsea cable project to connect up the globe . The intention was to give Meta more ascendance over how it runs its own services .
Today , Meta confirmed details of our composition : Project Waterworth is the official name , and it will be 50,000 kilometers long when completed , making it the worldly concern ’s farsighted subsea cable project .
Lining up with what we had hear about the undertaking calendar month ago , the meshwork will connect five continents , with landing place points in the United States , Brazil , India , South Africa , and other cardinal part . Facebook peculiarly send for out the chance in India , and the part that the web will make for in how it seethe out AI service globally , as two central reasons for work up the web .
In terms of the net itself , Meta says it will be breaking raw ground with its architecture , using 24 fiber pair overseas telegram , and what it describes as first - of - its - kind routing , “ maximizing the cable’s length laid in mystifying water supply — at depths up to 7,000 m ” along with Modern burial techniques to reduce faults in domain deemed “ high risk , ” either because of geographical issues , or political sympathies — and sometimes both .
antecedently , we noted that geopolitics is one of the major cistron in the market influencing Meta to work up its own subsea infrastructure . That has indeed played a role here .
On Thursday , the White House print ajoint drawing card statementfrom U.S. President Trump and India ’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi , which detailed a lengthy list of areas where the two countries would cooperate . Tucked into that long text file was a commitment to co - underdeveloped undersea technology as part of a defense partnership , as well as a note about Meta ’s 50,000 - km Waterworth project , and India ’s office in finance some of it .
“ Supporting greater Indian Ocean connectivity , the leader also welcome Meta ’s announcement of a multi - billion , multi - year investment in an submarine cable project that will set about work this year , ” the statement noted . “ India intends to enthrone in maintenance , repair and financing of submarine cables in the Indian Ocean , using trusted vendors . ”
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As for what the cable will be used for : In November , one of our source postulated that the development of AI datum pith and cloud services in India , the world ’s most populous land , was a significant reason for Meta ’s labor in the first place .
Meta has declined to gloss to us on more specific item but in its blog Charles William Post provided some high - level ideas of applications and play up the country and AI .
“ Digital communicating , TV experiences and online dealings , ” are among the applications that the subsea cable will enable , according to the place , penned by Meta ’s VP of engineeringGaya Nagarajanand its global head of net investmentsAlex - Handrah Aimé . “ Project Waterworth will be a multi - billion dollar , multi - year investment to tone up the scale and reliability of the world ’s digital highways by open three new oceanic corridor with the abundant , in high spirits speed connectivity want to drive AI innovation around the world . ”
This is not Meta ’s first subsea cable effort , nor is it the only major technology company to construct its own subsea substructure .
According to telecommunication analystsTeleGeography , Meta is part owner of 16 existing internet , including the 2Africa cable that encircles the continent ( others in that project are carriers , admit Orange , Vodafone , China Mobile , Bayobab / MTN , and more ) . This new cable project would be the first altogether owned by Meta itself .
That would put Meta into the same category as Google , which has involvement in some 33 different route , include a few regional drive in which it is the only possessor , per TeleGeography ’s tracking . Other Big Tech companies that are either part owners or electrical capacity purchaser in subsea cables include Amazon and Microsoft , neither of which are whole owners of any route themselves .
