Meta to build 50,000 km subsea cable to connect US, India, Brazil, S Africa

Social media giant Meta on Friday announced it will build a 50,000 km subsea cable network connecting the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions.

 

“Meta is investing in India – one of its largest markets – bringing the world’s longest, highest-capacity, and most technologically advanced subsea cable project to connect India, the US, and other locations,” a spokesperson for the company said.

 

Dubbed Project Waterworth, the undersea cable will be a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the abundant, high-speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world, Meta said in a blog post.

   

“We are also deploying first-of-its-kind routing, maximising the cable laid in deep water—at depths up to 7,000 metres—and using enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast, to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards,” Meta said in the blog post.

 

The investment, a Meta spokesperson said, is driven by the country’s growing demand for digital services and reaffirms the company’s commitment to supporting India’s thriving digital landscape and fostering technological innovation.

 

In a joint statement issued earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump thanked Meta for the undersea cable project, which will begin this year.

 

“India intends to invest in maintenance, repair, and financing of undersea cables in the Indian Ocean, using trusted vendors,” the two countries said in their statement.

 

The addition of Meta’s undersea cable will make it the 18th project that has a landing station in India.

 

According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data, the country hosts around 17 international subsea cables across 17 district landing stations.

 

The total lit capacity and active capacity of these cables stood at 180 terabit per second (TBPS) and 132 TBPS, respectively, Trai chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti had said at an event earlier this year.