FB to build 6,600-km state-of-art subsea cable across Atlantic

San Francisco, May 27

Microsoft and Facebook have joined hands to build a new, state-of-the-art subsea cable across the Atlantic Ocean that will help meet the growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers.

The 6,600-km MAREA cable will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic — eight fibre pairs and an initial estimated design capacity of 160 Tbps.

The construction of the cable will commence in August and is expected to be completed in October next year. Microsoft and Facebook are collaborating on this system to accelerate the development of the next-generation of Internet infrastructure.

The submarine cable system, to be operated and managed by Telxius, Telefonica’s new telecommunications infrastructure company, will also be the first to connect the US to southern Europe and then to network hubs in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. — IANS