MENLO PARK, Calif. and
REDMOND, Wash., May 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT" @microsoft) and Facebook
(NASDAQ:FB) announced an agreement to build a new,
state-of-the-art subsea cable across the Atlantic. The new
"MAREA" cable will help meet the growing customer demand for high
speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for
Microsoft, Facebook and their customers. The parties have cleared
conditions to go Contract-In-Force (CIF) with their plans, and
construction of the cable will commence in August 2016 with completion expected in
October 2017.
Microsoft and Facebook are collaborating on this system to
accelerate the development of the next-generation of Internet
infrastructure and support the explosion of data consumption and
rapid growth of their respective cloud and online services. MAREA
will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the
Atlantic – eight fiber pairs and an initial estimated design
capacity of 160Tbps. The new 6,600 km submarine cable system, to be
operated and managed by Telxius, Telefónica's new
telecommunications infrastructure company, will also be the first
to connect the United States to
southern Europe, from the data hub
of Northern Virginia to
Bilbao, Spain and then to network
hubs in Europe, Africa, the Middle
East and Asia. This route
is south of other transatlantic cable systems, thereby helping
ensure more resilient and reliable connections for customers in
the United States, Europe, and beyond.
Microsoft and Facebook designed MAREA to be interoperable with a
variety of networking equipment. This new "open" design brings
significant benefits for customers: lower costs and easier
equipment upgrades which leads to faster growth in bandwidth rates
since the system can evolve at the pace of optical technology
innovation.
Microsoft and Facebook are working with Telxius to build
upon Telefónica's longstanding experience in subsea cables on this
innovative new system. Telxius will serve as the operator of
the system and sell capacity as part of their wholesale
infrastructure business.
- "As the world is increasingly moving toward a future based on
cloud computing, Microsoft continues to invest in our cloud
infrastructure to meet current and future growing global demand for
our more than 200 cloud services, including Bing, Office 365,
Skype, Xbox Live and the Microsoft Azure platform," said Christian
Belady, General Manager, Datacenter Strategy, Planning &
Development, Microsoft Corp. "The MAREA transatlantic cable we're
building with Facebook and Telxius will provide new, low-latency
connectivity that will help meet the increasing demand for
higher-speed capacity across the Atlantic. By building the cable
along this new southern route, we will also increase the resiliency
of our global network, helping ensure even greater reliability for
our customers."
- "Facebook wants to make it possible for people to have deep
connections and shared experiences with the people who matter to
them most — anywhere in the world, and at any time," said
Najam Ahmad, Vice President of
Network Engineering at Facebook. "We're always evaluating new
technologies and systems in order to provide the best connectivity
possible. By creating a vendor-agnostic design with Microsoft and
Telxius, we can choose the hardware and software that best serves
the system and ultimately increase the pace of innovation. We want
to do more of these projects in this manner — allowing us to move
fast with more collaboration. We think this is how most subsea
cable systems will be built in the future."
- "Working with Facebook and Microsoft in this project will
reinforce Telxius' position as a worldwide leading infra company
not only expanding on-net capabilities to Spain and the USA but also allowing us to capture market
opportunities in Western Europe
and new emerging routes in Northern
Africa and other regions," said Rafael Arranz, Chief Operating Officer of
Telxius Cable.
Inquiries:
Sarah Sullivan
The OutCast Agency
ssullivan@theoutcastagency.com
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-and-facebook-to-build-an-innovative-new-subsea-cable-across-the-atlantic-ocean-300275701.html
SOURCE Facebook