Undersea cables are used for intercontinental data traffic. Meta, however, wants to build an exclusive connection connecting practically the entire world.
A project to lay 40,000 kilometers of undersea cables has been launched at Meta, TechCrunch confirms. In October, it was stated that the cable itself would cost $2 billion, while the overall project will cost $10 billion spread across five to ten years. According to insiders, the cable is called “W” owing to its shape, with a connection from the east coast of the U.S. toward India via South Africa. From India, Meta will extend the cable line further to Australia and eventually the west coast of the US. The location in Darwin, Australia would count as a recovery point.
Either way, it will take years for Meta to actually take advantage of it. The undersea cable would not come on line until part way through 2029-2030 at the earliest. According to Sunil Tagare, who shared the initial news on this and spoke to TechCrunch, Meta still has struggles ahead with Indian executives who will demand consideration for all approvals.
Against geopolitical tension
Meta is said to be concerned about geopolitical tensions. This is justified: cutting undersea cables has occurred several times in recent years. Certain locations, such as on the Red Sea, Singapore and near Taiwan, would cause major disruptions if they were completely disabled. Hence, Meta is opting for a major detour, which does create additional latency than the fastest route.
The news happens to come shortly after a submarine cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged. It has since been repaired. There was possibly sabotage by individuals on a Chinese freighter.
Building in redundancy is not a new idea and fueled by the risks of failure. Meta’s goal of exclusive use of a cable set up by itself is a new development, though. It is regularly supranational organizations, such as the European Union, that organize large-scale projects. Last year revealed the scale of this EU plan, which, like Meta’s project, is aimed at a global setup.