Microsoft and Facebook will together build a new, state-of-the-art subsea cable across the Atlantic. The 6,600 km "Marea" submarine cable system will be operated and managed by Telxius, Telefonica's new telecommunications infrastructure company, which will also sell capacity as part of its wholesale infrastructure business.
Marea will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic, with eight fibre pairs and an initial estimated design capacity of 160Tbps, the companies said. It will also be the first to connect the US to southern Europe, from the data hub of Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain and then to network hubs in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The route will be south of other transatlantic cable systems.
Marea will be interoperable with a variety of networking equipment and will help meet the growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers. The parties have cleared conditions to go Contract-In-Force (CIF) with their plans, and construction of the cable will start in August with completion expected for October 2017.
