Meta dreams big and is on the verge of announcing the official launch of a titanic project. The company has finally decided to build its own submarine fiber optic cable across the entire planet. A legitimate desire as it alone represents a significant part of global Internet traffic.
40,000 km – 10 billion dollars
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, plans to build an undersea fiber optic cable more than 40,000 km long. This monumental project, estimated to cost more than $10 billion, aims to strengthen Meta’s infrastructure to support its growing investments in artificial intelligence and data traffic.
Meta is the second largest data consumer in the world, accounting for 10% of landline traffic and 22% of global mobile traffic. By becoming the sole owner and user of this cable, Mark Zuckerberg’s company would take a significant step in the development of its global infrastructure. The cable is planned to run from the US east coast to India via South Africa, then back to the US west coast via Australia, drawing a “W” across the globe without ever leaving the sea depths.
Although the project is still in its initial stages, Meta plans to unveil its plans in early 2025, detailing the route, capacity and reasons for this massive construction. The implementation of this project will represent a challenge, particularly due to the limited capacity of companies such as SubCom to build such cables, given that they are already engaged with major clients like Google.
Logically, the complexity of such a project implies a significant waiting time. We are talking here about several years, or maybe even a decade. Without forgetting the possibility of abandonment or long-term postponement, as there are so many parameters to take into account before being able to take full and optimal advantage of it.
