Meta plans 50,000km undersea cable: connects US, Brazil, Africa, India, and Australia

Meta has just announced its most ambitious subsea internet cable project in history: Project Waterworth, and once it's complete it will reach 5 major continents -- the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia.

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Subsea cable infrastructure including Project Waterworth are the backbone of global digital infrastructure, which accounts for over 95% of intercontinental traffic across the world's oceans to provide digital communication, video and streaming services, online gaming, online transactions, and more.

Project Waterworth will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment in order to "strengthen the scale and reliability of the world's digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the abundant, high speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world" explains Meta on its website.

Meta says that it's driven infrastructure innovation with various partners over the last decade, developing over 20 subsea cables. This includes multiple deployments of industry-leading subsea cables of 24 fiber pairs, which is compared to the usual 8-16 fiber pairs of other systems, with Meta adding that these investments "enable unmatched connectivity for our world's increasing digital needs".

Project Waterworth will continue to see Meta advance engineering design in order to maintain cable resilience, enabling the company to build the longest 24 fiber pair cable project in the world, enhancing the overall speed of deployment. Meta continues: "We are also deploying first-of-its-kind routing, maximizing the cable laid in deep water - at depths up to 7,000 meters - and using enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast, to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards".

"AI is revolutionizing every aspect of our lives, from how we interact with each other to how we think about infrastructure - and Meta is at the forefront of building these innovative technologies. As AI continues to transform industries and societies around the world, it's clear that capacity, resilience, and global reach are more important than ever to support leading infrastructure. With Project Waterworth we can help ensure that the benefits of AI and other emerging technologies are available to everyone, regardless of where they live or work".