They've been planning this for like 10 years at this point. Google laid thousands of miles of cable that are operational since the last time I heard about this.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Toll road. I know what's going to happen with this. People are going to have the option to get a subscription for faster internet access or some shit.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 0 points 1 month ago

A global undersea cable network has been in place for 30 years. It's woefully overcapacity 24/7.

https://www.iscpc.org/information/global-submarine-cable-systems/

It takes huge capital and time to lay cable, and the point of doing it is that you're booking bandwidth from ISPs, often years in advance. There's competition, but it's also a seller's market because of huuuuuuuge bandwidth demands.

[–] neutronbumblebee@mander.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Maybe they have some recent Kessler syndrome modelling that makes it more urgent. Given the build up in low Earth orbit it's a reasonable backup idea.Also the global south is pretty underserved

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago

Hasn't this type of thing been going on for decades? Why is it news that meta is doing it?