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What simply occurred? Regardless of dealing with vital threats lately, undersea cables stay the spine of the trendy web. Now, Meta plans to additional broaden and strengthen this vital infrastructure. Challenge Waterworth goals to launch the world’s largest subsea cable system, using the highest-capacity know-how out there at this time.
A number of months in the past, rumors surfaced about Meta’s plans to put a brand new global network of undersea cables. Now, the corporate has formally unveiled Project Waterworth, an formidable and probably dangerous infrastructure initiative that may span over 50,000 kilometers and attain 5 continents.
The brand new system is designed to boost connectivity to the US, India, Brazil, South Africa, and different key areas for undersea infrastructure. Meta has dedicated an undisclosed quantity of funding to bolster the reliability of current undersea techniques and to open three new oceanic corridors concurrently.
Meta additionally highlighted its ongoing infrastructure improvements, citing greater than 20 subsea cables deployed via varied partnerships over the previous decade. The corporate has put in cables with 24 optical fiber pairs, in comparison with the everyday eight to 16 pairs utilized in typical undersea cables.
Meta has introduced that Challenge Waterworth will use the identical 24-fiber pair cable know-how deployed in earlier techniques. The plan additionally contains a number of technological improvements, reminiscent of a brand new routing answer designed to put cables at depths of as much as 7,000 meters beneath sea degree. To guard the cables in high-risk areas reminiscent of shallow waters close to coastlines, new burial strategies will probably be used to forestall harm from ship anchors and different unspecified hazards.
Meta justifies the venture as a vital infrastructure improve to advance AI improvement. The corporate claims that machine studying and generative AI fashions characterize a revolution in progress, though companies are nonetheless exploring what these agentic AI options can actually contribute by way of effectivity and extra income.
Meta additionally argues that Challenge Waterworth can carry the advantages of AI and different rising applied sciences to each nook of the globe. Nevertheless, the initiative may enhance the danger of sabotage makes an attempt. Undersea cables have develop into prime targets for adversarial nations like Russia and China, prompting NATO to rapidly develop countermeasures and different web connectivity routes.
