OP 01 December, 2024 - 10:03 AM
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has the second-largest number of internet users in the world. Its sites and their billions of users account for 10% of all landline and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta’s investments in artificial intelligence could further increase that number. So to ensure it has the infrastructure to support that business, Meta is getting its hands on the pipes.
TechCrunch has learned from sources close to the company that Meta is planning to build a major new fiber-optic undersea cable around the world — a 40,000+ kilometer project that could cost more than $10 billion to build. Crucially, Meta will be the sole owner and user of the undersea cable — a first for the company and thus a major milestone in its infrastructure efforts.
Sunil Tagare, a submarine cable expert (and pioneer in the field, founder of Flag Telecom) who first reported Meta’s plans back in October, told TechCrunch that the plan is to start with a budget of $2 billion, but that figure will likely increase to more than $10 billion as the project progresses over the course of years.
Sources close to Meta confirmed the project but said it’s still in the early stages. Plans have been drawn up, but the physical assets have not, and they declined to discuss the budget. Meta is expected to talk more publicly in early 2025, when it will confirm plans for the cable, including the proposed route, capacity, and some of the motivations behind its construction.
If the strategy is implemented, it will be years before it’s fully operational, given that the limited number of companies like SubCom that can build the infrastructure already have big clients like Google reserving their services.
"The supply of cable ships is very limited," says Ranulph Scarborough, an analyst at the submarine cable industry. "They are expensive at the moment and booked up for years to come. "Finding the capacity to do it in the short term is a challenge." One likely scenario, he says, is to build it in sections.
Once completed, the cable will give Meta a dedicated pipe to transmit data around the world. The cable's current planned route, sources say, runs from the US East Coast to India via South Africa, then from India via Australia to the US West Coast, forming a "W" shape around the globe, as shown in Tagare's drawing:
![[Image: The-10-billion-W-cable-that-could-give-M...ternet.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/9bdT199/The-10-billion-W-cable-that-could-give-Meta-control-over-the-internet.jpg)
Meta’s infrastructure work is overseen by Santosh Janardhan, who is the company’s head of global infrastructure and one of its engineering leaders. The company has teams around the world studying and planning its infrastructure, and has employed some big names in the industry in the past. In the case of this upcoming project, it is being developed at the company’s South African unit, sources said.
Fiber-optic submarine cables have been part of communications infrastructure for the past 40 years. What matters is who invests in building and owning them, and for what purposes.
Meta’s plans highlight how investment and ownership of undersea networks has shifted in recent years from consortiums involving telecom operators to large tech giants.
Meta is no stranger to the underwater game. According to telecom analyst Telegeography, Meta is a co-owner of 16 existing networks, including the recent 2Africa cable that circles the continent (carriers involved include Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Bayobab/MTN, and others).
However, this new cable project will be the first that Meta will own entirely.
That puts Meta in the same league as Google, which is involved in some 33 different routes, including several regional projects in which it is the sole owner, according to Telegeography. Other big tech companies that are either co-owners or buyers of capacity in undersea cables include Amazon and Microsoft (neither of which is a full owner of any route).
Why would Meta want its own cable?
There are a number of reasons why undersea cable construction might be of interest to big tech companies like Meta.
Meta, like Google, also touts the boost it has given regions through its undersea investments, claiming that projects like Marea in Europe and others in Southeast Asia have pumped more than “half a trillion dollars” into those regions’ economies.
But there’s a more pragmatic incentive for those investments: tech companies — not carriers, the traditional builders and owners of those cables — want more direct ownership of the pipes needed to deliver content, advertising, and more to users around the world.
Meta makes more money outside North America than in its home market, according to its earnings reports. Priority for dedicated undersea cables will help ensure quality of service for that traffic. (Note: That’s just long-haul traffic; the company still has to negotiate with carriers within countries and deliver the “last mile” to users’ devices, which can be tricky.)
“They make their money by getting their products to end users, and they’ll do whatever it takes to provide a great experience for customers, whether it’s delivering video or other assets,” analyst Scarborough says. “Frankly, who’s going to rely on the incumbents anymore? Tech companies are independent now. They’ve realized they have to build everything themselves.”
The second is geopolitical .
Undersea cables have been knocked out of service several times in recent years as collateral or direct damage to military action. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have attacked boats and damaged cables in the Red Sea in the process (like this one connecting Europe to India). This month, Russia was suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea. This week, another cable failed in European waters, with a Chinese vessel claiming responsibility.
Meta’s route is meant to help the company “avoid geopolitical tensions ,” a source close to the company told TechCrunch.
In his blog, Tagare notes that the route would bypass the Red Sea, South China Sea, Egypt, Marseille, the Strait of Malacca, and Singapore — “all of which are currently major failure points.”
The FCC’s announcement this month that it plans to review undersea cable licensing for the first time in decades, in part because of national security and cable ownership, could potentially provide another boost: Meta would become the sole owner of the route through secure corridors.
source : https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/29/meta-p...urces-say/
TechCrunch has learned from sources close to the company that Meta is planning to build a major new fiber-optic undersea cable around the world — a 40,000+ kilometer project that could cost more than $10 billion to build. Crucially, Meta will be the sole owner and user of the undersea cable — a first for the company and thus a major milestone in its infrastructure efforts.
Sunil Tagare, a submarine cable expert (and pioneer in the field, founder of Flag Telecom) who first reported Meta’s plans back in October, told TechCrunch that the plan is to start with a budget of $2 billion, but that figure will likely increase to more than $10 billion as the project progresses over the course of years.
Sources close to Meta confirmed the project but said it’s still in the early stages. Plans have been drawn up, but the physical assets have not, and they declined to discuss the budget. Meta is expected to talk more publicly in early 2025, when it will confirm plans for the cable, including the proposed route, capacity, and some of the motivations behind its construction.
If the strategy is implemented, it will be years before it’s fully operational, given that the limited number of companies like SubCom that can build the infrastructure already have big clients like Google reserving their services.
"The supply of cable ships is very limited," says Ranulph Scarborough, an analyst at the submarine cable industry. "They are expensive at the moment and booked up for years to come. "Finding the capacity to do it in the short term is a challenge." One likely scenario, he says, is to build it in sections.
Once completed, the cable will give Meta a dedicated pipe to transmit data around the world. The cable's current planned route, sources say, runs from the US East Coast to India via South Africa, then from India via Australia to the US West Coast, forming a "W" shape around the globe, as shown in Tagare's drawing:
Meta’s infrastructure work is overseen by Santosh Janardhan, who is the company’s head of global infrastructure and one of its engineering leaders. The company has teams around the world studying and planning its infrastructure, and has employed some big names in the industry in the past. In the case of this upcoming project, it is being developed at the company’s South African unit, sources said.
Fiber-optic submarine cables have been part of communications infrastructure for the past 40 years. What matters is who invests in building and owning them, and for what purposes.
Meta’s plans highlight how investment and ownership of undersea networks has shifted in recent years from consortiums involving telecom operators to large tech giants.
Meta is no stranger to the underwater game. According to telecom analyst Telegeography, Meta is a co-owner of 16 existing networks, including the recent 2Africa cable that circles the continent (carriers involved include Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Bayobab/MTN, and others).
However, this new cable project will be the first that Meta will own entirely.
That puts Meta in the same league as Google, which is involved in some 33 different routes, including several regional projects in which it is the sole owner, according to Telegeography. Other big tech companies that are either co-owners or buyers of capacity in undersea cables include Amazon and Microsoft (neither of which is a full owner of any route).
Why would Meta want its own cable?
There are a number of reasons why undersea cable construction might be of interest to big tech companies like Meta.
Meta, like Google, also touts the boost it has given regions through its undersea investments, claiming that projects like Marea in Europe and others in Southeast Asia have pumped more than “half a trillion dollars” into those regions’ economies.
But there’s a more pragmatic incentive for those investments: tech companies — not carriers, the traditional builders and owners of those cables — want more direct ownership of the pipes needed to deliver content, advertising, and more to users around the world.
Meta makes more money outside North America than in its home market, according to its earnings reports. Priority for dedicated undersea cables will help ensure quality of service for that traffic. (Note: That’s just long-haul traffic; the company still has to negotiate with carriers within countries and deliver the “last mile” to users’ devices, which can be tricky.)
“They make their money by getting their products to end users, and they’ll do whatever it takes to provide a great experience for customers, whether it’s delivering video or other assets,” analyst Scarborough says. “Frankly, who’s going to rely on the incumbents anymore? Tech companies are independent now. They’ve realized they have to build everything themselves.”
The second is geopolitical .
Undersea cables have been knocked out of service several times in recent years as collateral or direct damage to military action. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have attacked boats and damaged cables in the Red Sea in the process (like this one connecting Europe to India). This month, Russia was suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea. This week, another cable failed in European waters, with a Chinese vessel claiming responsibility.
Meta’s route is meant to help the company “avoid geopolitical tensions ,” a source close to the company told TechCrunch.
In his blog, Tagare notes that the route would bypass the Red Sea, South China Sea, Egypt, Marseille, the Strait of Malacca, and Singapore — “all of which are currently major failure points.”
The FCC’s announcement this month that it plans to review undersea cable licensing for the first time in decades, in part because of national security and cable ownership, could potentially provide another boost: Meta would become the sole owner of the route through secure corridors.
source : https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/29/meta-p...urces-say/
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![[Image: Sig.png]](https://i.ibb.co/xh4Mcd3/Sig.png)