back to article Microsoft and Facebook, swimming in the sea,
N-E-T-W-O-R-K-I-N-G

Microsoft and Facebook have decided to fund a submarine cable together. The MAREA cable will run from from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Bilbao, Spain. Virginia's new territory for trans-Atlantic cables, so Microsoft and Facebook are talking this up as adding resiliency to traffic between the USA and Europe. Bilbao's already a …

  1. mr. deadlift

    Meanwhile

    a child in Australia waits...

    for 21st century speeds.

    Yeah okay apples and oranges and strawman, but please indulge me.

    Look at this, August - October, completed. In that year, that year!

    The scale is just continent to continent, do you think Aus. could manage that on land?

    Crikey! i tell you what, if you left it to the Aus. government, they'd put it down, tell you couldn't use it, sell it, back to their mates, tell you to put another down, tell you couldn't use that again because it was inferior product and is now useless, shoot you in the foot then tell you start walking, all with your money - taxpayer money.

    I wouldn't usually espouse this, for obvious reasons, but do we need to consider reputable private companies to get vital infrastructure projects completed?

    As a tax payer, i love so see the executive piss all that cash away, and less and less essential projects seem to be completed competently by elected officials. That should be grounds for a halt, the governments, both state and federal seem to incapable of hitting the broad side of a barn.

    These catastrophic failures in delivery - the outcomes of which are detestable, scare the living shit out of me.

    The future just reeks of cronyism and incompetence, which will be ironic as Australia slowly pitches into a second rate global citizen.

    In other news, kudos FB and M$, i hope you play nice with your new link.

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Re: Meanwhile

      I want to thank you...

      25 years ago was the last time I experienced this feeling. I was intoxicated on interesting external substances of questionable origin while visiting New Orleans.

      There was a little Cajun woman who would string together long chains of words in such a way that would cause an artist to weep while appreciating the beauty of having found such a diamond in the rough.

      What was unique about her speaking is that she believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was speaking some coherent tongue, possibly some derivative of English. In fact, I'm sure if we recorded her and hired and expert to transcribe her speech, it would be composed mostly of English words.

      We however had absolutely no idea how such words could be combined as she used them into sentences and how such sentences could be used to communicate a thought as opposed to simply conveying sound.

      You have allowed me to experience such a feeling of joy again. By reading and re-reading your writing, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about... I have no idea if there is any conceivable connection to the article.

      But I have a wholehearted, honest and well intentioned reply to what I believe is your pain. Here it is :

      Bunny! Flipping chicken or palm fried nackerwillies.

      I hope this helps to heal you.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meanwhile

        I want to thank you...

        As post criticisms go, this is one of the most elaborate ones I've seen in a long time. It leaves me with no choice but to upvote it :)

    2. Oengus

      Re: Meanwhile

      a child in All of Australia waits...

      FTFY

    3. Nonymous Crowd Nerd

      Re: Meanwhile

      I think there's an error in those dates. If he'd meant that it's to complete the build between August and October 2017 - just 3 months, I think that's what he'd have said. Guess that it's planned for 15 months - starting this year or finishing 2018.

      1. Steve Foster

        Re: Meanwhile

        3 months to slowly cross the atlantic letting out cable as you go sounds like a reasonable timeframe; 15 months seems excessive.

        At least, for a private organisation - obviously, if this was a government scheme, the consultation alone would take at least 15 months!

        1. Len
          Happy

          Less than 75 KM a day

          I though it looked very quick but after doing some basic calculations it's probably not that strange. The cable will need to bridge a distance of 6600 KM. If they take 90 days then we're talking about just under 75 KM a day. Considering these ships are essentially automatic undersea cable laying factories it does sound feasible.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meanwhile

      "but there's only so much space in landing stations"

      GCHQs tapping bays are full to capacity?

      1. JohnG

        Re: Meanwhile

        "but there's only so much space in landing stations"

        "GCHQs tapping bays are full to capacity?"

        Luckily, the US end is in northern Virginia, which should keep this sort of thing fairly simple.

        1. William Phelps
          Angel

          Re: Meanwhile

          Luckily, the US end is in Southeastern Virginia -- a region with even more assets.

  2. Cynical Observer
    Coat

    Is this finally the cable that ....

    goes to Eleven

  3. Douchus McBagg

    did nobody notice the "facebook" element of the story? an element that leads me to say "i'll stick with dial up if that's what it takes"

    you can guarantee the zunt is going to be slurping all that yummy data.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    160Tbps?

    The linked map at the bottom seems to suggest there's currently only about 35Tbps total across the Atlantic?

    If that's the case then this would be a pretty epic upgrade...

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: 160Tbps?

      A lot depends on when the Spanish get around to hooking it up at their end. And what they hook it up to.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: 160Tbps?

        No it really doesn't John. Why do you think they'd pull the cable in to shore and hand it over to 'the Spanish' to get on with? A private company is dealing with the installation end to end and they will get the maximum capacity they can out of it. They will also hook it up and have it operational as soon as humanly possible. I mean seriously, why wouldn't they? This isn't a government project.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: 160Tbps?

          I did consider putting the joke icon on but then I thought, "ah Mañana"

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Coat

    Transatlantic

    If their customers are not only the UK but the rest of Europe then why "land" in the UK, Virginia to Bilbao is probably a bit shorter than to the UK and is close to both France and Portugal. Why that sentence in the article that sounds like an excuse. And then there is that other question. Finland had to pull a cable across the Baltic to Germany as the Swedes started to claim they have some funny right to data moving through Sweden.

  6. Simon R. Bone
    FAIL

    Why "Strange bedfellows"

    Ms own a chunk of FB...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Gotta get connected ..

    These fibre networks are used to connect the major financial and industrial parks. But just drive ten miles outside into the countryside and you might as well be back in the nineteenth century. You either can't have it or the costs are astronomical.

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