Meta is building the ‘mother of all’ subsea cables

Meta is reportedly readying to build a world-spanning fiber-optic subsea cablegram for its ain exclusive use. According to TechCrunch, the $10 cardinal task will create a caller 40,000+ kilometer (about 24,850 miles) cablegram web astir the world that avoids “areas of geopolitical tension” wherever subsea cables person been sabotaged, specified arsenic the Red Sea, the South China Sea, Egypt, Marseilles, the Straits of Malacca, and Singapore.

While Meta is already a part-owner of 16 existing networks, this caller cablegram task would beryllium wholly owned by the institution — allowing it afloat power to prioritize postulation to its ain products and services. That would bring Meta successful statement pinch Google’s efforts, which privately owns a fistful of cablegram routes and has invested successful 33 others.

Subsea cablegram master Sunil Tagare first reported connected Meta’s scheme to build the “mother of each submarine cables” — dubbed “W,” for its style — backmost successful October, estimating that the effort would require a $10 cardinal finance and apt return betwixt 5-10 years to complete. TechCrunch says the plans are still successful the early stages, and that Meta is expected to uncover much — specified arsenic the capacity, intended route, and why it’s privately building the cablegram — sometime successful early 2025.

The rumored way for Meta’s undersea cablegram would span from the US eastbound seashore and backmost to the westbound seashore via relationship points successful India, South Africa, and Australia. The extremity is to debar building successful regions that person seen a caller spate of cablegram cuts, which trust connected a secretive world web of ships to repair.