Meta Platforms has announced a plan to build the world’s largest submarine telecommunications cable – and it will help connect South Africa to the world.
The cable, which will span more than 50 000km – longer than the circumference of Earth – will connect five continents and will utilise the “highest-capacity technology available” today.
Called Project Waterworth, the system will connect the US, India, Brazil, South Africa and other key regions.
“This project will enable greater economic cooperation, facilitate digital inclusion and open opportunities for technological development in these regions. For example, in India, where we’ve already seen significant growth and investment in digital infrastructure, Waterworth will help accelerate this progress and support the country’s ambitious plans for its digital economy,” Meta said in a statement.
A map published by Meta – see above – shows the planned route for the high-capacity cable, with includes a landing station on South Africa’s southern coastline. It said construction of the system will cost multiple billions of dollars. It did not say when it expects construction to begin, or when the system will be ready for service.
The new system will have 24 fibre pairs – significantly more than the number of fibre pairs found in most other undersea cable systems. Its planned construction follows Meta’s involvement in the construction of 2Africa, a giant cable system that connects Africa, Europe and the Asian subcontinent.
Enhanced burial techniques
“With Project Waterworth, we continue to advance engineering design to maintain cable resilience, enabling us to build the longest 24-fibre pair cable project in the world and enhance overall speed of deployment,” Meta said.
“We are also deploying first-of-its-kind routing, maximising the cable laid in deep water – at depths of up to 7 000m – and using enhanced burial techniques in high-risk fault areas, such as shallow waters near the coast, to avoid damage from ship anchors and other hazards.”
News of Meta’s plans follow rival Google’s announcement last May that it plans to build a new cable system called Umoja that will connect South Africa and Australia. The planned build follows Google’s completion of the Equiano cable that connects South Africa to Europe along Africa’s west coast.
Read: Google’s giant Equiano Internet cable has landed in South Africa
The new cable system includes a terrestrial leg built by Liquid Intelligent Technologies. “Anchored in Kenya, the Umoja cable route will pass through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, including the Google Cloud region, before crossing the Indian Ocean to Australia,” Google said at the time. — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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