invest in undersea internet cable system has been abig part of data strategyplans for technical school behemoth in recent age . Now Microsoft and Facebook are teaming up for the mother of all cables : A 4,100 - mile monster that can move 160 Tbps , which will make it the highest - capacity cable on Earth . The cable even has a name , MAREA , and it will break ground ( break waves ? ) later this class . Hopefully it can handle all your selfies .
Last yr , Microsoftfirst announcedit would need to lay such a cable to aid funnel the ever increase flowage of customer data that ’s stored in the cloud . Partnering with Facebook , which has interchangeable datum challenges , clear sense as Facebook can facilitate beak up some of the price of the project .
The Microbook - Facesoft cable also help turn to one of the magnanimous challenges with these types of net infrastructure projects . Most of the transatlantic cable that currently serve US land in New York and New Jersey . Were some sort of calamity — say atomic flak , quake , oreven a ship ’s anchor , no joke — to off the region , it could wipe many of them out . The need for geographic multifariousness is one of the reason why the MAREA cable will originate in Virginia Beach . ( Here ’s agreat explainerbyThe Undersea Networkauthor Nicole Starosielski on why we need more rich cables in a potpourri of locations . ) This is probably why Microsoft is also working on its owntranspacific cableas well .
Telecom companies like AT&T and Sprint have traditionally helped finance these type of cable , but they’requickly being outpacedin both length and capacity by technical school companies . Although several cables are long ( like the 24,000 mileSEA - ME - WE-3which connects two 12 countries ) , MAREA has eight fibre yoke where many cablegram only have two . That means the 160 Tbps - capacity cable will be nearly twice the capacity of anew 60 Tbps Google - backed cablenamed , ironically , FASTER .
MAREA will be built and operated by Telxius , the infrastructure arm of Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica , which will use part of the capacitance to serve its own client . The cable’s length will be finished by October of 2017 and quick to take on your most information - heavy Bing searches and Facebook updates then .
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