Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced the launch of Project Waterworth, an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest undersea cable network.
Spanning 50,000 kilometres (31,000 miles), this massive project will connect five major continents: the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia. This distance even surpasses the Earth’s circumference of 40,075 kilometres (24,901 miles).
The goal of Project Waterworth is to strengthen global digital highways by creating three new oceanic corridors. These corridors will provide high-speed, reliable internet connections to support the fast-growing world of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.
According to Meta, the undersea cable system will be laid as deep as 7,000 meters (4.3 miles) below the ocean surface. In shallow coastal areas, advanced techniques will be used to bury the cables to protect them from damage caused by ship anchors and other risks.
“This project will be a multi-billion dollar, multi-year investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways,” Meta stated. “It will open opportunities for technological development, boost economic cooperation, and promote digital inclusion in key regions.”
Undersea cables are crucial to the modern internet, carrying more than 95% of intercontinental data traffic. While many people assume satellites handle global communication, fibre-optic cables beneath the ocean form the backbone of the internet. These cables allow us to stream videos, use cloud services, and communicate across continents almost instantly.
What makes Project Waterworth even more impressive is its size and capacity. The cable will have 24 fibre pairs, making it the largest of its kind. This means faster data transfer speeds and greater capacity, which is vital for AI technologies that require vast amounts of data to work efficiently.
India plays a key role in this project. Over the last decade, India has rapidly grown into a global technology hub, thanks to its expanding digital infrastructure. Meta highlighted that Project Waterworth will further accelerate India’s digital growth and support the country’s vision of a strong digital economy.
“For example, in India, where we’ve already seen significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure, Waterworth will help drive further progress,” Meta noted.
This announcement comes shortly after the recent US-India Joint Leaders’ Statement, which emphasized the importance of digital collaboration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States earlier this month helped solidify plans for closer cooperation in digital technology, with Project Waterworth playing a major role in strengthening these ties.
One of the most exciting aspects of Project Waterworth is its potential impact on AI innovation. Reliable, high-speed internet is essential for training AI models and processing large data sets.
Meta hopes that this new cable network will make advanced technologies like AI more accessible to people worldwide, helping to bridge the gap between developed and developing regions.
“With Project Waterworth, we can help ensure that the benefits of AI and other emerging technologies are available to everyone, breaking down geographical barriers,” Meta added.
Undersea cables have come a long way since the first transatlantic cable was laid in 1858, which transmitted just one byte of Morse code every two minutes.
Today, more than 600 undersea cables are creating a global network of digital highways. Although satellites contribute to global communication, these subsea cables still carry the majority of internet traffic.
