Social media giant Meta plans to lay its own private underwater fiber-optic internet cable that will stretch around the world, according to a new report.
Early next year, Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — is expected to announce plans to lay more than 25,000 miles of undersea fiber optic cables, which could cost more than $10 billion, sources close to the matter said. company to TechCrunch. .
The cables will be owned and operated solely by Meta, the second largest driver of Internet usage globally, comprising 22% of all mobile traffic, according to the media.
The route for the cables would potentially stretch from the US East Coast to India through South Africa – then from India through Australia to the US West Coast, according to the report.
Experts say the company has a long list of checkpoints to hit before implementing these grandiose plans, including finding companies to lay the cable.
“There’s a real tight supply on cable ships,” Ranulf Scarborough, an analyst of the submarine cable industry, told TechCrunch.
“They are expensive at the moment and are booked up years in advance. Finding the resources available to do it soon is a challenge,” he added.
If completed, the circuit would become the first privately owned and operated global fiber optic cable project.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other Big Tech companies all own parts of other global cable systems — but none own their private line outright, according to TechCrunch.
Experts say there are several motivating factors for Meta to make such a large investment in infrastructure.
The company will be able to privately support its extensive Internet traffic on its own properties, reducing its dependence on telecommunications companies that have otherwise been left in the technological quagmire at the dawn of the Internet age.
Experts also say Meta is motivated to entrench by geopolitical strife, which has resulted in collateral and direct damage to submarine cables.
Just last week, a cable was cut in European waters, with the nation of Sweden calling on China to cooperate in an investigation looking into a vessel controlled by the communist nation, according to the Associated Press.
The company’s planned route is meant to “avoid areas of geopolitical tension,” a source close to the company told TechCrunch.
In May, US national security officials warned Meta, Google and other firms that undersea internet cables could be at risk of tampering by Chinese-controlled vessels.
The FCC announced earlier this month that it will launch the first comprehensive review of submarine cable licensing rules in decades, seeking to modernize the rules and ensure the safety of vital infrastructure.
According to the report, the Meta project is still in the early stages of development and will take years of planning.
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