Meta To Build World's Longest Undersea Cable 31
Meta unveiled on Friday Project Waterworth, a 50,000-kilometer subsea cable network that will be the world's longest such system. The multi-billion dollar project will connect the U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions. The system utilizes 24 fiber pairs and introduces what Meta describes as "first-of-its-kind routing" that maximizes cable placement in deep water at depths up to 7,000 meters.
The company developed new burial techniques for high-risk areas near coasts to protect against ship anchors and other hazards. A joint statement from President Trump and Prime Minister Modi confirmed India's role in maintaining and financing portions of the undersea cables in the Indian Ocean using "trusted vendors." According to telecom analysts Telegeography, Meta currently has ownership stakes in 16 subsea networks, including the 2Africa cable system that encircles the African continent. This new project would be Meta's first wholly owned global cable system.
The company developed new burial techniques for high-risk areas near coasts to protect against ship anchors and other hazards. A joint statement from President Trump and Prime Minister Modi confirmed India's role in maintaining and financing portions of the undersea cables in the Indian Ocean using "trusted vendors." According to telecom analysts Telegeography, Meta currently has ownership stakes in 16 subsea networks, including the 2Africa cable system that encircles the African continent. This new project would be Meta's first wholly owned global cable system.
How do you repair a 24-strand fibre cable? (Score:4, Interesting)
How do you repair a 24-strand undersea fibre cable?
It's inevitable that it's going to be damaged accidentally or otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
*correction* I meant a 24-pair fibre cable, of course.
Re:How do you repair a 24-strand fibre cable? (Score:5, Informative)
You repair it using a ship dragging a big hook along the ocean floor [theverge.com]. [ Lots of annoying graphics, but the story and photos are good ]
Re: (Score:2)
How do you repair a 24-pair undersea fibre cable?
You repair it using a ship dragging a big hook along the ocean floor [theverge.com].
Or as Russian ships call it, the anchor.
Re: How do you repair a 24-strand fibre cable? (Score:1)
AH HA HA HA THAT'S A GOOD ONE!!! RUSSIA BAD
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Re: How do you repair a 24-strand fibre cable? (Score:2)
I have a better question; if you're going to all thos trouble and expense why do you only put in 24 pairs of Fibre?
Why not 240 pairs?
The Fibre is not the expensive part here.
Re: (Score:3)
The number of fibers is a compromise. If you have a transoceanic cable you have to put in amplifiers to boost the signal every 100km or so, and that means the cost of the amplifiers and their power draw will scale up. You have to load up all the cable on a ship, so it matters quite a lot how thick it is and how much power you need to send down it. These factors don't really matter when connecting up a 864-count fiber cable in a city. Historically 24 is quite a lot, as some of the turn-of-the-century transat
Re: (Score:3)
See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Ok, but only if.... (Score:3)
Fascism is rising across Europe and I don't see the guillotines coming out there, either.
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, the multi party systems in Europe offer more countermeasures, or perhaps more inertia. Well, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders won but didn't make prime minister. Things are different. But democracies are frail all around...
Meanwhile, Trump and his gang are turning the USA economy into a game of monopoly that the upper class (robber barons) h
I wish him the best (Score:4, Interesting)
And it's clear that he would rather be doing anything BUT selling ads. He tried VR goggles. VR sunglasses. He tried politics. Now he's trying this. I really do wish him success.
The problem is that it's extremely rare for someone to get to the top of a mountain that high, and then repeat it a second time. I can only think of one or two living people who've managed to dunk like that more than once.
Re:I wish him the best (Score:4, Informative)
Now he's trying this.
What do you mean "now he's trying this"? Hard numbers are hard to come by but back in 2021 Meta already owned or co-owned 99,399km of undersea cable. He's not "trying" anything. It's just another day in the office for a company that owns a fuckton of cable already.
Use LEO satellites instead (Score:2)
Use low earth orbit satellite laser links instead. It'll be faster and cheaper. Light travels 30% faster in a vacuum than in optical fiber. There is virtually no latency when transmitting to LEO satellites that are only a couple hundred miles overhead (satellite latency you're thinking of is to geostationary satellites that are 20,000 miles above the Earth .. LEO satellites are only a few hundred miles above the Earth).
Re:Use LEO satellites instead (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Way more expensive for the same throughput and you have to beg president Musk. Also bad weather can ruin your day
As you point out with the weather, also vastly easier to jam or otherwise interfere with. ANY kind of open-air comms, even tight-beam laser transmission, will always be physically significantly more vulnerable than closed cable comm.
Re: (Score:2)
Rain and snow don't affect transmissions at those frequencies.
Re: (Score:2)
You can have redundant transmit points in areas where there's no rain. A trans-oceanic cable enters the sea in only one location.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
OK, then it's only 29.99999% faster when you consider that the vacuum in LEO is higher than any vacuum we can create on Earth.
Re: (Score:2)
It'll be faster and cheaper.
Tell us you don't know what you're talking about without telling us. It think you really desperately need to look up both the cost of launching a LEO network, and the bandwidth it is capable of delivering vs fibre. (To say nothing about the ongoing cost of operation).
Re: Use LEO satellites instead (Score:2)
The world after Prism (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: The world after Prism (Score:2)
Oh goody (Score:3)
Sad (Score:2)
Meta does not build this network for the good of people, not even for simply allowing people more and better interaction via WhatsApp.
The financials are based on the relentless tracking of their products.
BRICS countries? (Score:2)
The multi-billion dollar project will connect the U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions.
Shouldn't that be "Spain", rather than "South Africa"? After all, the US president seems to think that Spain is one of the BRICS countries...
Vertical integration in tech shouldn't be allowed. (Score:3)
Owning infrastructure can also problematic.