Meta Plans 7,000-Kilometer Subsea Cable Between US and France

Meta is set to construct a new subsea cable named Petal, which will span 7,000 kilometers connecting the United States and France. When operational in 2029, the cable will boast a capacity of 1 petabit per second (1 Pbps), allowing for twice the capacity per fiber without increasing power usage or infrastructure. This capacity growth is driven by the rising demand for data transmission, as mobile network traffic is expected to reach 303 exabytes per month by the end of 2030, nearly tripling the 2024 levels.

AI workloads, video streaming, and cloud services are major contributors to this demand. Meta's executive vice president, Jean-Louis Le Roux, highlighted the significance of Petal's 1 Pbps capacity, noting it surpasses the previous transatlantic milestone of 1 terabit per second, achieved two decades earlier. To achieve this unprecedented capacity, Petal utilizes two cores of optical fiber within each strand, a technique known as spatial-division multiplexing (SDM), which multiplies the number of independent channels within the cable.

Compared to Meta's previous transatlantic cable, Anjana, which offers roughly 0.5 Pbps, Petal will provide roughly twice the capacity without the need for additional optical fibers. While the new cable will not automatically yield faster connection speeds or reduced latency, it could benefit data-intensive industries such as finance, AI, and media.

However, actual performance will depend on various factors, including network routing, landing-station connections, carrier access, and the specific cloud regions involved. IT leaders should view Petal as a long-term infrastructure development rather than an immediate reason to alter their cloud or networking strategies. Its full value will depend on the availability of access to the cable and how traffic is routed, as well as the implementation timeline in 2029.