Microsoft, Facebook team up to build undersea net cable

Microsoft and Facebook are building a new underwater Internet cable that will cross the Atlantic Ocean, carrying customers' data between North America and Southern Europe.

The giant tech companies say they helped design the high-speed cable to carry data for their growing numbers of online consumers and commercial customers. The project will be operated by an affiliate of Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica, which will sell unused capacity on the cable to other customers. It will connect data hubs in Northern Virginia and Bilbao, Spain.

Internet companies often pay to use cables owned by telecommunications providers, but the new project won't be the first to be owned by a U.S. tech company. Google has invested in subsea projects across the Pacific.

The construction of the new "MAREA" cable will begin in August and it is expected to be completed in October 2017, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.

The 6,600 kilometer cable, the first to connect the United States with southern Europe.

The cable is initially designed to carry 160 terabits of data per second, the companies said.

The move comes nearly two years after Google Inc, now Alphabet Inc, agreed with five Asian companies to invest about $300 million to develop and operate a trans-Pacific cable network connecting the United States to Japan.

Microsoft has also been experimenting with underwater datacenters under its Project Natick, and last year tested a prototype on the seafloor for four months.

Underwater datacenters, envisioned to be powered by renewable marine energy sources, is expected to reduce the huge cost associated with cooling datacenters that generate a lot of heat, and also to reduce the distance to connected populations.

Microsoft on Thursday declined to disclose the financial details about MAREA. Facebook did not immediately respond for comment.