Meta has recently announced its plan to boost artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by circling the world with a new underwater cable.
Project Waterworth, which Meta calls its “most ambitious subsea cable endeavour”, will become the world’s longest undersea cable project once completed.
But how feasible is this project and what would it mean for Australia?
Here’s what we know.
What is Meta aiming to do?
Meta plans to build a 50,000-kilometre-long subsea communication cable, which is longer than the Earth’s circumference, linking the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa, and other key regions.
Meta said the subsea cable would be submerged at a depth of up to 7,000 metres under the water.
Project Waterworth will go between Australia and Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Malaysia. (Supplied: Meta)
“This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion, and open opportunities for technological development in these regions,” the tech giant said in a post.
“Project Waterworth will be a multi-billion-dollar investment to strengthen the scale and reliability of the world’s digital highways by opening three new oceanic corridors with the high-speed connectivity needed to drive AI innovation around the world.“
How do undersea cables work?
Underwater cables are the fastest and most cost-effective way to transport data across the ocean, Jocelinn Kang, a technical specialist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told ABC NewsRadio.
Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta’s most ambitious subsea cable project, aiming to drive AI innovation globally. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
The cables mostly lie on the ocean floor, but nearer to the shore they are buried under the seabed for protection.
“[Those cables] currently carry 99 per cent of all transcontinental internet traffic, including your video calls, stock market transactions, conference calls, military operations — everything,” Joe Brock, a global editor with Reuters, told ABC RN’s Late Night Live in 2023.
What does it mean for Australia?
Meta’s planned route will go under the sea to Australia’s north.
Ms Kang said that Australia, as an island country, heavily relies on undersea cables for international data traffic, and the new cable would help Australia better connect to other parts of the world.
“We [Australia] can provide regions like the Middle East with [an] alternative path [to the US] that doesn’t go through one of these more hazardous points where the cables can be more easily damaged,” she said.
She said it was a “smart move” to route the cable to the north, avoiding the more crowded areas like Sydney.
How feasible is it?
Very feasible.
TeleGeography’s research director Alan Mauldin said Meta and Google were currently the largest investors in new submarine cables projects globally.
“It’s not a question of money,” he told the ABC.
“Building a cable like this is far less expensive than the data centres [that] Meta is investing in.
“Also, it’s best to view this not as a single cable but as multiple cables that will be stitched together.”
What happens next?
Mr Mauldin said it was noticeable Meta had avoided the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels have been attacking international shipping, and the contested South China Sea for this project.
“The Red Sea [is] where there have been many delays in laying new cables and [especially] last year repairing cables,” he said, “and the South China Sea [is] another geopolitical hot spot where it’s become challenging to lay new cables.”
“Meta is fully stepping into the 100 per cent privately funded cable area,”
Mr Mauldin said.
“So, it’s really just them (Meta) and Google leading the way here.”
