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 total mobile phone traffic – it was close to announcement of work on a major new $ 10 billion cable project for connecting the planet. The goal was to give Meta more control of the way he was performing his own services.
Today, Meta confirmed details of our report: Project Waterworth is the official nameAnd it will be 50,000 kilometers in length when completed, making it the longest cable program in the world.
With the investment 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 areas. Facebook is particularly calling for opportunities in India and the role that the network will play in the way in which AI services are evolving worldwide, as two main reasons for building the network.
In terms of the network itself, Meta says he will break the new ground with his architecture, using 24 fiber pair cables and what he describes as his first routing, “maximizing the cable in deep water-in-depths of up to 7,000 Measures “along with new burial techniques to reduce defects in areas considered” high risk “, either due to geographical issues or because of policy – and sometimes both.
Previously, we have noted that Geopolitics is one of the most important market factors that affect post -meta to build its own underwater infrastructure. This has really played a role here.
On Thursday, the White House posted a Statement By US President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who detailed a long list of areas where the two countries will work together. Designed in this long document was a commitment to eliminate underwater technologies as part of a corporate defense relationship, as well as a note for the Meta Waterworth project and India’s role in financing some of it.
“In support of the greatest connectivity of the Indian Ocean, leaders also welcomed META’s announcement of a long -standing investment of many billion, many years of investment in an underwater cable that will start working this year,” the statement said. “India intends to invest in maintenance, repair and funding of submarine cables in the Indian Ocean, using reliable sellers.”
As for what the cable will be used: In November, one of our sources assumes that the development of AI data centers and Cloud services in India, the most populous country in the world was an important reason for Meta’s work in the first position.
Meta refused to comment on us for more specific details, but in her post on the blog she provided some high -level application ideas and emphasized the country and AI.
“Digital communication, video experiences and electronic transactions” are among the applications that will allow the submarine cable, according to the location written by the Vice President of Meta Engineering Gaya nagarajan and the global head of network investment Alex-Handrah Aimé. “The Waterworth Project will be a multi -year -old billions of dollars to boost the world’s scale and credibility in the world, opening three new ocean corridors with the abundant, high high speed connection required to drive AI world ”.
This is not Meta’s first submarine effort, nor is it the only major technology company to build its own underwater infrastructure.
According to Telecom analysts TelecommunicationMeta owns 16 existing networks, including the 2Africa cable surrounding Epirus (others in this project are carriers such as Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Bayobab/MTN and others). This new cable project would be the first one entirely belongs to Meta itself.
This would put META in the same category as Google, which has participated in about 33 different routes, including some peripheral efforts in which it is the only owner, per observation of the TV. Other large technology companies that are either owners of parties or buyers of underwater cables include Amazon and Microsoft, none of them are entire owners of any route.
