Microsoft and Facebook to build "highest-capacity ever" trans-Atlantic cable starting August

On their Server and Cloud blog Microsoft revealed that they are partnering with Facebook to build the “highest-capacity ever” subsea trans-Atlantic cable with a speed of up to 160Tbps starting this August.

The 6,600 cable will connect United States to southern Europe: from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Bilbao, Spain and will be managed by Telefonica subsidiary Telxius.

The MAREA cable will help meet the growing customer demand for high-speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers.

“In order to better serve our customers and provide the type of reliable and low-latency connectivity they deserve, we are continuing to invest in new and innovative ways to continuously upgrade both the Microsoft Cloud and the global Internet infrastructure,” said Frank Rey, director, global network acquisition, Microsoft Corp. “This marks an important new step in building the next generation infrastructure of the Internet.”

Construction of the cable is expected to be completed in October 2017.

As one of the largest cloud operators in the world, Microsoft has invested more than $15 billion (USD) in building a resilient cloud infrastructure and cloud services that are highly available and highly secure while lowering overall costs. Microsoft has now announced 32 Azure regions around the world with 24 generally available today – more than any other major cloud provider. This latest investment, together with Microsoft’s previously announced investments in global fiber assets including the NCP trans-Pacific subsea cable, is further proof of Microsoft’s commitment to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft said.