Advances in this area are enormous, as fiber optic cables built 20 years ago had almost 200 times less capacity. The new cable will be part of a larger project called 2Africa and will be connected to the African Pearl wire, which covers countries like Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.

Once this cable is built, the entire 2Africa line will be 45,000 meters long. kilometers and Facebook says it will be the longest submarine cable system ever deployed. It will almost triple the capacity of the cable serving Africa.

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Facebook is also working on new ways to feed submarine cables. For example, he wants to design a transatlantic cable with a length of 7,000 meters. kilometers, which is based on new types of amplifiers. They will consume energy generated on earth, so the cable will contain not only optical fiber, but an additional wire that carries electricity.

Another idea is to install mini-power plants next to local amplifiers, which will contain converters that convert the energy contained in sea waves and sunlight into electricity.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced, along with several of its partners, that it was starting construction of two cables connecting Singapore, Indonesia and North America. The first, called Echo, will be built with Google and XL Axiata, and is expected to go live in 2023. Construction of the second (it will be a joint effort of Facebook, Telin and Keppel) is due to be completed a year later.