US tech giant Meta plans to invest US $10 billion to build an undersea communications cable spanning more than 40,000 km around the earth. According to sources, the initial undersea cable from the east coast of the United States, via South Africa, India, Australia, back to the west coast of the United States, thus forming a global ring.
Infographic: Front of Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, USA.
Because the entire cable line looks like the letter W, the project is also known as Project W. According to reports, the W plan is still in the preliminary stage, Meta Company may be in early next year, including specific lines and communication capacity, such as more information. It may take 5 to 10 years for it to be built and put into use.
The investment also has a more pragmatic motivation: tech companies want to have more direct access to the pipelines needed to deliver content, advertising and the like to users around the world, according to the report’s analysis. The cable will provide Meta with a dedicated pipeline for global data traffic, an infrastructure normally built by telecoms giants but recently the tech giants have begun to take matters into their own hands. Previously, Google was involved in about 33 different lines, and there are some 100% control of regional lines. Meta has previously invested in 16 lines, but Project W will be the first of its own.
Meta, the parent company of social media platforms and messaging apps Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, accounts for 10 per cent of all fixed traffic and 22 per cent of all mobile traffic for its products and its billions of users. Meta’s investment in artificial intelligence will further increase this usage. Therefore, to ensure a reliable infrastructure to support this business, Meta is taking matters into its own hands.
According to The Verge, full control of routes and cables will give Meta priority in delivering traffic to its products and services. According to its earnings report, Meta makes more money outside North than in its home market. Prioritizing the use of dedicated undersea cabling helps ensure the quality of service for this traffic.
TechCrunch also said the plan had geopolitical considerations behind it, with the route avoiding all of the world’s so-called “Significant single point of failure”, including the Red Sea and Strait of Malacca.
In view of the global popularity of artificial intelligence, it is not clear how Meta’s own global cable loop will affect the AI industry. Although it is too early to say whether Project W includes AI considerations, the source said, the long tail effect of the plan definitely involves AI elements. Some analysts also point out that India is a key link in the W program’s path, and that in addition to its intention to further expand the Indian market, Meta may also intend to build India into an AI training center.