Meta confirms “Waterworth Project”, “Global Underwater Cable Project covering 50,000 kilometers

Already in November, we broke the news This meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting For 10% of all fixed and 22% of the total mobile traffic – it was close to the announcement of a major new, $ 10 billion+ underwater cable project to connect the globe. The goal was to give Meta more control over how he fulfilled his own services.

Today Meta confirmed the details of our report: Project Waterworth is the official nameAnd it will be 50,000 kilometers long when it is over, which makes it the longest underwater cable project in the world.

By arranging what we had heard about the project months ago, the network will connect five continents, with landing points in the United States, Brazil, India, South Africa and other key regions. Facebook is especially calling for the opportunities in India and the role that the network will play in how it introduces AI services globally, as two key reasons for the construction of the network.

With regard to the network itself, Meta says it will break new land with its architecture, using 24 cables of pairs of fibers and what it describes as the first of its kind route, “maximum maximum cable placed in deep water-at-depth up to 7000 meters, along with new funeral techniques to reduce errors in areas considered a “high risk” or because of geographical problems, or by politics, and sometimes both.

Previously, we noted that geopolitics is one of the main factors in the market influencing Meta to build its own underwater infrastructure. This really played a role here.

On Thursday the White House publishes a A joint statement of leaders From US President Trump and India Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi, who details a long list of areas where both countries will cooperate. The stored in this long document was a commitment to jointly develop underwater technology as part of a defense partnership, as well as a note about the Waterworth project of 50,000 kilometers and the role of India in the financing of part of it.

“Supporting the greater connectivity of the Indian Ocean, leaders also welcomed Meta declaration as a multi-billion, perennial investment in an underwater cable project that will start work this year,” the statement said. “India intends to invest in maintenance, repair and financing underwater cables in the Indian Ocean using reliable suppliers.”

As for what the cable will be used for: In November, one of our sources postulates that the growth of AI data centers and cloud services in India, the most populated country in the world, is an important reason for the META project of the META First place.

Meta declined to comment on us more specific details, but in his blog post provided some ideas for high-level applications and emphasized the country and AI.

Digital Communication, Video Experience and Online Transactions are among the applications that the underwater cable will allow, according to the publication written by Meta’s Vice President of Meta Engineering Nagarajan style and his global network investment leader Alex-Handra AimbeS “Project Waterworth will be a multi -billion, perennial investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of global digital highways, opening three new ocean corridors with abundant, high speed connectivity needed to stimulate AI innovation worldwide.”

This is not the first Meta underwater cable effort, nor is it the only major technology company to build its underwater infrastructure.

According to telecommunication analysts TeegeeographyMeta is part of 16 existing networks, including the 2AFrica cable, which surrounds the continent (others in this project are carriers, including Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Bayobab/MTN and others). This new cable project will be the first fully property of Meta itself.

This would put Meta in the same category as Google, which is involved in about 33 different routes, including several regional efforts in which he is the only owner for tracking teleography. Other large technology companies that are either parts owners or buyers of underwater cables include Amazon and Microsoft, none of which are the owners of any route.