Meta is planning to build the world’s largest undersea cable, aiming to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other countries. The parent company of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads will build a 50.000-kilometer cable, longer than the circumference of the Earth, to make Artificial Intelligence and new technologies accessible to everyone. The Waterworth Project will open “three new ocean corridors with high-speed connectivity needed to deliver AI innovation to the world,” Meta said.
Undersea cables are described as the “backbone of the internet” by the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership, a group that aims for the world’s population to have access to the internet by 2030.
The group reports that about 95% of internet traffic passes through these cables, but access to them is incomplete, which affects the most marginalized groups in society. Meta has built 20 underwater cables so far, while Elon Musk is using satellites to increase internet connectivity. However, Starlink has another goal because it connects remote areas where a cable is difficult to reach with the internet. Meta’s new project is expected to cost billions of dollars and will take years to complete. The company has described it as “the most ambitious underwater venture to date.”