Meta's Multibillion Subsea Cable Project to Be Confirmed in 2025 - Report

Mark Zuckerberg-controlled internet giant Meta is reportedly in the early stages of its multibillion-dollar fiber-optic subsea cable project, with more official details expected to be made public next year.

This was reported by TechCrunch, citing undisclosed sources close to Meta. According to these sources, plans have already been laid out, and the project's route, capacity, and other details are expected to be confirmed and announced in 2025.

Meanwhile, Sunil Tagare, a subsea cable expert, claimed in October—without revealing his sources—that Meta's project is dubbed "W" because of its shape and will be primarily dedicated to India. According to Tagare, it will be a 40,000 km-long cable starting on the East Coast of the US, reaching India via South Africa, and then connecting to the Western Coast of the US through Australia. The expert estimates the project's initial budget at $2 billion, potentially increasing to more than $10 billion over 5-10 years.

"With a billion users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, India is already Meta's largest market in terms of users, surpassing the US. And imagine if all these users started using AI in some form or another. That requires massive investments in data centers in India and submarine cables for connectivity," Tagare explained, highlighting the rationale behind the project.

However, he raised concerns, stating that his "biggest problem with this project is Meta will own 100% of the capacity of this cable."

In 2022, Meta discussed its subsea cable investments, which were expected to "contribute over half a trillion dollars to Asia-Pacific and European economies by 2025."

At that time, the company confirmed its role in developing two subsea cables in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region that were already in service. Meta also stated it was building and developing several more cables across the region. In Europe, Meta highlighted its investment in Marea, one of the highest-capacity transoceanic cables in the world. Additionally, the company announced plans to land two new cables in Europe over the following five years.