Named Petal, it is set to become the longest and most powerful subsea fiber-optic cable for internet connectivity. Designed to span 7,000 kilometers across the Atlantic, the project is scheduled for completion in 2029.
The initiative is led by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The cable will connect the United States and France, delivering a transmission capacity of 1 million gigabits per second—equivalent to streaming 25,000 high-definition movies simultaneously.
According to Meta, Petal will be the first commercial subsea cable system to utilize multi-core fiber technology, which features multiple independent cores for data transmission. While conventional fiber strands typically contain a single core, each strand in Petal will feature two cores capable of carrying optical signals in opposite directions—a design that effectively doubles the capacity of a single strand.
Each fiber strand has a thickness comparable to a human hair, measuring just 125 micrometers in diameter. Petal will contain 24 pairs of dual-core fibers for a total of 96 cores, enabling it to transport a volume of data equivalent to what 48 conventional fiber pairs would handle.
The cable will be developed and manufactured by the Japanese technology firm NEC. Once operational, Petal will be the first transoceanic cable to deliver capacity on the order of petabits—double that of existing subsea cables of comparable length. This immense capacity would theoretically allow 75% of the global population to stream music at the same time.
Subsea cables represent one of the most critical backbones of global internet infrastructure, essential for international data transmission. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), they carry approximately 99% of all global internet traffic.
Translated with the assistance of Gemini.
