Report: Meta to spend $10B+ on 25,000-mile submarine web cable

Meta Platforms Inc. plans to spend greater than $10 billion on a submarine web cable that may circle the globe, TechCrunch reported today.

The project was first detailed last month by subsea networking expert Sunil Tagare. In response to TechCrunch, multiple sources near Meta have confirmed the initiative. The Facebook parent isn’t any stranger to undersea web infrastructure: It has already built several submarine web cables in partnership with other corporations. 

Unlike those earlier systems, the upcoming cable is anticipated to be wholly owned by Meta. It’ll span greater than 24,850 miles from the East Coast to the West Coast with pit stops in South Africa, India and Australia. The report didn’t specify the cable’s planned bandwidth.

Meta is anticipated to finance the project in phases. The cable’s first segment will reportedly cost $2 billion to deploy, while the remaining modules could reportedly add greater than $8 billion to the worth tag. The system is anticipated to take years to finish, partly since the specialized cable ships utilized in such projects are fully booked for the foreseeable future.

The initiative is alleged to be in an early stage. Meta is anticipated to announce it publicly next yr, at which point the corporate can even share details reminiscent of the cable’s route and bandwidth.

As a part of its previous submarine web projects, Meta has developed several technologies to streamline the flow of knowledge across the ocean floor. It’s possible a few of those technologies will likely be incorporated into the upcoming cable.

The electricity that powers submarine web cables is usually delivered via copper wiring. In 2019, Meta detailed that it was working to switch copper with aluminum conductors. Using aluminum lowers each costs and voltage drop, a phenomenon that limits the quantity of power delivered to a cable’s components and thereby constrains its bandwidth.

In 2022, a gaggle of corporations that included Meta deployed the primary submarine web cable built with aluminum conductors. The Havhingsten cable, because it’s called, runs from Ireland to the west coast of the UK and Denmark.

Meta has also explored other ways of improving undersea web equipment. One research project, which the corporate detailed in 2021, sought to spice up the bandwidth of submarine cables by enhancing the best way they implement repeaters. Those are optical components that shield network traffic from data loss and errors. 

Repeaters are placed every 50 miles or so along a cable. The speed at which the cable transmits data partly will depend on how much power is offered to its repeaters. Currently, power availability is restricted by the undeniable fact that electricity needs to be sourced from the shore even when a repeater is in the midst of the ocean. 

As a part of the research project it detailed in 2021, Meta sought to develop ways of addressing the challenge. The corporate explored ways of using solar panels to generate power for repeaters. Meta also checked out using wave energy converters, devices that turn kinetic energy from waves into electricity.

Meta’s web cable investments are a part of a broader effort to boost its network infrastructure. Along with creating latest routes through which user traffic can travel to its data centers, the corporate is working to hurry up the flow of data inside those data centers.

Last month, Meta detailed a custom network chip it has designed in collaboration with Marvell Technology Inc. The FBNIC, because it’s called, is what’s referred to as a network interface controller. It is a kind of chip that acts as an interface between a server and the remaining of the information center by which it’s running.

The FBNIC relies on a five-nanometer node and might move as much as 100 gigabits of knowledge per second per port. In response to Marvell, the chip runs Meta-developed firmware that makes it easier for the social media giant’s engineers to repair technical issues. 

Image: Meta