From TechCrunch, February 14:
Back in November, we broke the news that Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic — was close to announcing work on a major new, $10 billion+ subsea cable project to connect up the globe. The aim was to give Meta more control over how it runs its own services.
Today, Meta confirmed details of our report: Project Waterworth is the official name, and it will be 50,000 kilometers long when completed, making it the world’s longest subsea cable project.
Lining up with what we had heard about the project months ago, the network will connect five continents, with landing points in the United States, Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions. Facebook particularly calls out the opportunities in India, and the role that the network will play in how it rolls out AI services globally, as two key reasons for building the network.
In terms of the network itself, Meta says it will be breaking new ground with its architecture, using 24 fiber pair cables, and what it describes as first-of-its-kind routing, “maximizing the cable laid in deep water — at depths up to 7,000 meters” along with new burial techniques to reduce faults in areas deemed “high risk,” either because of geographical issues, or politics — and sometimes both....
....MUCH MORE
Previously:
September 2021
"Facebook Backs Two Major Undersea Cable Projects, Google Joins Forces For One"
That's it.
If
Zuckster and the Goog are going to stand astride major communication
choke points it's time to work out the details of the shortwave radio
setup.
"The Secret Life of the 500+ Cables That Run the Internet"
And many, many more.
