Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced plans to build the longest undersea internet cable in the world, spanning over five continents.
According to BBC, Meta announced its new Project Waterworth, in which it aims to build a 50,000 km (31,000 mile) sub-sea cable connecting the US, India, South Africa, Brazil, and other regions.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp’s parent company decided to extend its presence in the technological world, besides a social media apps company. It says that its new project will give “industry-leading connectivity” to five major continents of the world and will help them in their AI projects.
Meta said in a blog post, “This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions.”
Moreover, this will be the longest cable to date with 24 special fibres that will offer a higher capacity that will allow it to carry more data. Underwater cable has become more important now as it is capable of transferring data all around the world quickly.
Professor Vili Lehdonvirta of the Oxford Internet Institute told the BBC, “Over the past decade there has been a shift in which these cables are increasingly laid by large technology companies.”
Furthermore, a regularly cited statistic revealed that over 95% of the world’s internet traffic travels through sub-sea cables. TeleGeography, a telecommunication market research firm, found that currently there are more than 600 known underwater cable systems around the world.
