Meta to build $10B global underwater internet cable: Report

KARAH RUCKER: Meta – the parent company of Facebook – is reportedly planning to build a ten *billion* dollar underwater fiber-optic cable that will go around the world.

The cable would help the company handle high user traffic and keep a high quality of service internationally.

It also brings Meta in line with Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Alphabet and Google have a network of cables, some of which they own fully.

The technology news site TechCrunch reported that it would be a cable exclusively for the company’s use, and would avoid areas they think face political and military tensions.

The reported route for the cable will take it from the East Coast of the U.S., across the Atlantic, around South Africa, up to India, above the northern part of Australia, and across the Pacific to the West Coast.

Undersea cables play a key role in global fiber-optic internet. But their locations can put them at risk.

Cables in the Red Sea suffered damage from strikes by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

And authorities in Denmark have been looking into cable damage caused in the Baltic Sea by a Chinese ship. They accuse the crew of the ship, which left from a Russian port, of intentionally dragging its anchor to cut underwater cables.

The TechCrunch report says Meta will likely share more details about its global project sometime in 2025, and that the project could take years to complete.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Karah Rucker.

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