Microsoft and Facebook have announced that they will be partnering up, but its not going to have anything to do with either operating systems or social media, it’s going to have something to do with underwater submarine cables.
Today, both companies have announced that they will be building a massive underwater data cable connecting the US to Europe. Dubbed ‘MAREA’, this underwater cable will stretch from Virginia Beach in the US and will reach Bilbao, Spain. This route is further south from various other cabling systems in the area, which the companies claim would allow for more “resilient and reliable” data connections. As for specifications of the cable itself, MAREA would have an estimated data capacity of 160Tbps, making it the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic.
While Microsoft and Facebook will be collaborating on the cable, neither companies are going to be actually managing it of course. MAREA will be managed by Telxius, a division of the Spanish Telefónica telecommunications company. This company will sell off capcity from MAREA to companies outside of Facebook and Microsoft.
Construction of MAREA is expected to be completed by October 2017.
Source: Engadget, Microsoft, Facebook
