Meta has announced plans to build a 50,000km (31,000 mile) subsea cable across the world.
The tech giant said Project Waterworth – connecting the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions – will be the world’s longest underwater cable project when completed.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has sought to extend its presence in technology beyond social media, including in artificial intelligence (AI) and the infrastructure that supports it.
It said its new cable project would provide “industry-leading connectivity” to five major continents and help support its AI projects.
“This project will enable greater economic co-operation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions,” Meta said in a blog post.
The cable would be the longest to date that uses a 24 fibre-pair system, giving it a higher capacity, according to the firm.
Subsea cables have become increasingly important as they provide the means to power a variety of digital services and transfer data worldwide at speed.
One regularly-cited statistic suggests more than 95% of the world’s internet traffic is transferred through undersea cables.
Telecommunications market research firm TeleGeography says there are currently more than 600 publicly-known subsea cable systems worldwide.
This includes the 2Africa cable, backed by Meta and mobile network operators such as Orange, Vodafone and China Mobile, which links three continents and spans 45,000km.
And the tech firms that serve as major providers of web services have invested huge sums in cable infrastructure.
Google said in 2024 it would build the first subsea cable connecting Africa and Australia, and announced a $1bn investment to boost connectivity to Japan with two new subsea cables in the Pacific Ocean.
Telecoms and technology analyst Paolo Pescatore told the BBC that Meta “has shown a strong desire to own more of the connectivity slice”.
“This is a further demonstration as it seeks to leapfrog rivals in providing users with an unique experience by tightly integrating hardware, software, platform and its growing aspirations in connectivity,” he said.
“Ultimately these moves, while welcome from an investment perspective, will raise further eyebrows among regulators and other key stakeholders given increasing dominance of big tech.”
The rising importance of subsea cables has increased concerns over their vulnerability to attacks or accidents.
Following a spate of severed cables, experts have said undersea communications infrastructure is a growing arena for geopolitical tensions and conflict.
Nato launched a mission in January to increase surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after damage to critical undersea cables last year.
A UK parliamentary committee recently issued a call for evidence about the UK’s resilience in the face of potential disruption.
This said pointed to growing concern over “Russian and Chinese capabilities to hold undersea infrastructure at risk – particularly during periods of heightened tension or conflict”.
Meta said in its blog post announcing Project Waterworth it would lay its cable system up to 7,000 meters deep and “use enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast, to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards”.
