Meta Announces Petal: A 1,000,000 Gbps Transatlantic Subsea Cable

Meta has unveiled plans for 'Petal,' a groundbreaking subsea cable system designed to connect the United States and France. Spanning approximately 7,000 kilometers, the cable aims to achieve a transmission capacity of one petabit per second—roughly one million gigabits—which is significantly faster than current transatlantic standards. By utilizing advanced multi-core fiber technology and 48 spatial channels, Meta expects the system to double existing transoceanic capacity. The project, developed in partnership with NEC Corporation and Sumitomo Electric Industries, is slated for commercial service by 2029. Meta emphasizes that this infrastructure is critical for supporting the rising demand for high-quality digital services and AI-driven traffic. While the project faces potential regulatory and manufacturing hurdles, it represents a major milestone in global telecommunications, theoretically capable of transferring the world's entire library of recorded music in less than a second.