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Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-largest driver of Internet usage globally. Its features – and billions of users – account For 10% of total fixed data traffic and 22% of total mobile traffic. Meta’s investments in AI will further enhance this use. So to make sure it has a reliable infrastructure to support this work, Meta is taking pipelines into its own hands.
TechCrunch has confirmed with sources close to the company that Meta is planning to build a major new submarine fiber-optic cable extending around the world — a project more than 40,000 km long that could have a total investment of more than $10 billion. Most importantly, Meta will be the sole owner and user of this submarine cable, which is the first of its kind for the company and thus represents a milestone for its infrastructure efforts.
Sunil Tajari, submarine cable expert (b pioneer In space, as founder of Flag Telecom), who was the first to report on Meta’s plans back OctoberHe told TechCrunch that the plan will start with a budget of $2 billion, but as the project is built out, that number will likely rise to more than $10 billion as the project extends into years of work.
Sources close to Meta confirmed the project but said it was still in its early stages. The plans were in place, but the physical assets were not in place, and they refused to discuss the budget. Meta is expected to speak more publicly about the matter in early 2025, when it will confirm plans for the cable, including the intended route, capacity and some of the reasons behind its construction.
It will take years before it is fully operational, if the strategy is to be followed, given that the limited number of companies, such as SubCom, that are able to build the infrastructure already have large clients, such as Google, booking its services.
“There is a real shortage of supply for cable ships,” said Ranulph Scarborough, a submarine cable industry analyst. “It’s expensive right now, and it was booked several years ago. Finding the resources available to do it soon is a challenge,” he added. One possible scenario could include building in parts, he added.
The cable, when completed, will give Meta a dedicated pipe for data traffic around the world. Sources say the cable’s planned route currently runs from the US east coast to India via South Africa, and then to the US west coast from India via Australia – forming a ‘W’ shape around the world. , as Tajari envisioned it here:
Meta’s infrastructure business is overseen by Santosh Janardhan, who is the company’s global head of infrastructure and co-head of engineering. The company has teams around the world examining and planning its infrastructure, and it has had some Important industry numbers Worked for it in the past. In the case of this upcoming project, it is being designed outside the company’s South African operations, according to sources.
Undersea fiber optic cables have been part of the communications infrastructure for the past 40 years. What is important here is who invests the money needed to build and own it, and for what purpose.
Meta’s plans confirm how investment and ownership of maritime networks have shifted in recent years from consortia that included telecommunications companies, to now include major technology giants.
Meta is not new to the undersea game. According to telecom analysts GeographyMeta is part owner of 16 existing networks, including the 2Africa cable that recently circumnavigated the continent (other networks in this venture are telcos including Orange, Vodafone, China Mobile, Payobab/MTN and more).
However, this new cable venture will be the first wholly owned by Meta itself.
That would put Meta in the same category as Google, which is involved in about 33 different tracks, including some regional efforts in which it is the sole owner, according to Telegeography’s tracking. Other big tech companies that are either part owners or buyers of capacity in submarine cables include Amazon and Microsoft (neither of which owns any track themselves).
There are a number of reasons why building submarine cables is attractive to big technology companies like Meta.
First, sole ownership of the road and cable would give Meta the first shot at supporting traffic on its own property.
According to her Earnings reportsMeta makes more money outside North America than it does in its home market itself. Prioritizing dedicated subsea cables can help ensure quality of service on that traffic. (Note: This is only to ensure long-distance traffic: the company still has to negotiate with carriers within countries and in “last mile” delivery to users’ devices, which may have its challenges.)
Meta, like Google, is also building on the leverage it has provided to regions through its subsea investments, claim Projects such as Maria in Europe and others in Southeast Asia have contributed more than “half a trillion dollars” to the economies in those regions.
However, there is a more realistic incentive for these investments: technology companies – rather than telecom companies, traditional construction companies and owners of these cables – want to have more direct ownership of the pipelines needed to deliver content, ads and more to users around the world.
“They make their money delivering their products to end users, and they will do everything they can to ensure the customer experience, whether that’s video delivery or other assets,” said Scarborough, the analyst. “Honestly, who’s going to rely on traditional telecom companies anymore? Technology companies are now independent. They realize they have to build it themselves.”
The second is geopolitical.
Several times in recent years, submarine cables have been cut as collateral or direct damage from war. Houthi fighters, backed by Iran, are pursuing the boats and in the process damaging cables in the Red Sea (e.g. this Connecting Europe to India). This month (November 2024), Russia was accused of cutting a submarine cable In the Baltic Sea. Just this week, another cable fell in European waters, and a Chinese ship is now taking the blame.
A source close to the company told TechCrunch that the goal of the route as envisioned by Meta is to help the company “avoid areas of geopolitical tension.”
Tajari points out in his blog post that the route will avoid the Red Sea, the South China Sea, Egypt, Marseille, the Strait of Malacca, and Singapore — “all of which are now major failure points.”
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). advertisement This month (November 2024) it plans to review its submarine cable license for the first time in decades, partly due to national security and cable ownership, but also likely to serve as another incentive here: Meta will be the sole owner of the route through secure corridors.
There is a third possible reason for seeing dead people under the sea, although it is more speculative.
According to Tagari’s theory, it is directly related to the cable that terminates in India. He believes Meta has an opportunity to build data center capacity in the country specifically for training and working with AI models, and the submarine cable could play a role in that effort.
He points out that the cost of computer bandwidth in India is a fraction of the price in the United States, and that many in India were buzzing after Jensen Huang’s last visit: In a meeting with Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, the Nvidia CEO spoke about India building its own AI infrastructure. Reliance, among other vendors, will use Nvidia’s Blackwell chips in future AI data centers.
“India can become the coaching capital of the world,” Tagari said in an interview. He thinks Meta might want to build AI training in the country around that infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence is Big portion For the Meta infrastructure roadmap. But beyond that, India is a huge market for Meta, topping estimates as the country with the highest number of Facebook users by far (More than 375 million users), Instagram (363 million), and WhatsApp (536 million) and these consumers have proven to be very enthusiastic about newer features such as its AI tools. With strong Investments As it enters the country’s data center market, India still has a lot of growth potential, so this fact alone makes it logical to add India as a starting point in the process.
Sources close to the project tell us it’s too early to say whether AI is part of the meta equation in this project, describing it as part of the “long tail” of considerations and possibilities, along with whether the meta will open up capabilities to others. Users besides himself.
Meta declined to comment for this article.
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