Meta is said to be planning a fiber-optic subsea internet cable that will span the world and could cost north of $10 billion. The project, which was originally reported by subsea cable expert Sunil Tagare, could be formally announced early next year. However, sources linked to Meta told TechCrunch that the project is in the early stages.
Only a few contractors would be capable of building out that infrastructure and many are tied up with commitments to other customers. If the project does come to fruition, it’s likely to take several years before the cable is laid and switched on.
Meta is said to be the part-owner of more than a dozen subsea networks but this would be the first one that it owns and operates entirely. Google has a few of its own, though Amazon and Microsoft don’t have any dedicated cables and are part owners of others. Meta will reportedly be the sole user of its cable. The company and its services are said to account for about 10 percent of global fixed internet usage (and about 22 percent of mobile traffic).
At this point, Meta generates more revenue from international markets than it does in North America. The cable would give it greater ownership over its infrastructure in the aim of ensuring its services are as stable as possible, though ISPs and mobile providers will still of course be responsible for keeping users’ devices connected. Meta has worked its own Wi-Fi and mobile internet projects, but it wound down the former in 2022.
It’s expected that the cable will run from the US east coast to South Africa then to India and the north coast of Australia before hitting the west coast. All told, the cable could be at least 25,000 miles or so long.
That supposedly safe route would avoid areas where there are said to be “major single points of failure,” according to Tagare. Those include the Red Sea, the South China Sea, Egypt, Marseilles, the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. It would also steer clear of many geopolitical hotspots.
Two undersea cables were severed in the Baltic Sea over the couple of weeks. Investigators believe that a Chinese commercial trawler — possibly acting under the influence of Russian intelligence — cut the cables by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
