Technology reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Meta has announced plans to build a 50,000km (31,000 mile) sub-sea cable across the world. <\/p>\n The tech giant said Project Waterworth – connecting the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions – will be the world’s longest underwater cable project when completed.<\/p>\n Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has sought to extend its presence in technology beyond social media, including in artificial intelligence (AI) and the infrastructure that supports it.<\/p>\n It said its new cable project would provide “industry-leading connectivity” to five major continents and help support its AI projects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “This project will enable greater economic co-operation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions,” Meta said in a blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cable would be the longest to date that uses a 24 fibre-pair system, giving it a higher capacity, according to the firm.<\/p>\n Sub-sea cables have become increasingly important as they provide the means to power a variety of digital services and transfer data worldwide at speed.<\/p>\n One regularly-cited statistic suggests more than 95% of the world’s internet traffic is transferred through undersea cables.<\/p>\n Telecommunications market research firm TeleGeography says there are currently more than 600 publicly-known sub-sea cable systems worldwide.<\/p>\n This includes the 2Africa cable, backed by Meta and mobile network operators such as Orange, Vodafone and China Mobile, which links three continents and spans 45,000km. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tech firms that serve as major providers of web services have invested huge sums in cable infrastructure.<\/p>\n Google said in 2024 it would build the first sub-sea cable connecting Africa and Australia, and announced<\/a> a $1bn investment to boost connectivity to Japan with two new sub-sea cables in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n “Over the past decade there has been a shift in which these cables are increasingly laid by large technology companies,” Professor Vili Lehdonvirta of the Oxford Internet Institute told the BBC. <\/p>\n He said this is in contrast to the past, where underwater cables were laid and financed by large groups of national telecoms firms, due to their considerable investment needs.<\/p>\n Prof Lehdonvirta said this reflects the growing size and position of big tech firms to be able to fund such infrastructure independently – something that “may be significant to policy makers concerned with concentration in digital markets”.<\/p>\n Telecoms and technology industry analyst Paolo Pescatore said it spoke to Meta’s ambitions. <\/p>\n “Meta has shown a strong desire to own more of the connectivity slice,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n “This is a further demonstration as it seeks to leapfrog rivals in providing users with an unique experience by tightly integrating hardware, software, platform and its growing aspirations in connectivity,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The rising importance of sub-sea cables has increased concerns over their vulnerability to attacks or accidents.<\/p>\n Following a spate of severed cables, experts have said undersea communications infrastructure is a growing arena for geopolitical tensions and conflict.<\/p>\n Nato launched a mission in January to increase surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after damage to critical undersea cables last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/b9fc\/live\/6a169420-ed3c-11ef-aa6d-b97ed0f17260.jpg.webp\")
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Meta](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/6ddd\/live\/c5be62a0-ed2b-11ef-b008-3d63fe428927.jpg.webp\")
Meta<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nTech’s bigger stake<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Protecting against threats<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n