ne of the biggest drivers of the internet in the world is Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Even more so, its properties and its
user accounts stand for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. And after Meta’s investments in artificial intelligence, the usage of the internet is set to grow. So, in order to ensure a reliable infrastructure that can support the business, Meta is planning on building a $10B subsea cable spanning.
TechCrunch has reported that the social media parent company plans to build a new subsea fiber-optic cable extending around the world. The projects would reach 40,000+ km and have a cost higher than $10 billion.
Even more so, the owner and user of this subsea cable will be Meta. this is the first time the company has done something like this, coming as a milestone in their infrastructure development.
In October Sunil Tagare, an expert in the cable field was the first to announce Meta’s plans, reporting for TechCrunch that the plan is set to start with a budget of $2 billion, yet as the project is developed, the budget for it is expected to go as high as $10 billion.
The project with billions of dollars was confirmed by sources close to Meta, yet also mentioned that the plans are still in their early stages. Although the plans have been laid out, the physical assets have not been laid out yet, and the budgets remain private.
It is, however, expected that Meta will talk publicly about the investment in the first months of 2025 when the plans for the subsea cable will be confirmed. The project will take years to build and become fully operational, given that large companies capable of building a project that big are already involved in other projects such as the one Google and SubCom have.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Ranulf Scarborough a submarine cable industry expert said “There’s a real tight supply on cable ships,” and that “They’re expensive at the minute and booked out several years ahead. Finding the available resources to do it soon is a challenge.
The route is set to resemble a “W” shape and travels from the east coast of the U.S. to India via the South of Africa and then to the west coast via Australia.
Scarborough also added that “They make their money from their products being presented to end users, and they will do everything they can to ensure customer experience, whether that’s delivery of video or other assets” and “Frankly, who’s going to rely on traditional telcos anymore? Tech companies are now independent. They’ve realized they’ve got to build it themselves.”.
The progress of the project remains still unknown, further information about the matter will be announced in the future.
.webp)
