The MAREA submarine cable is a high-speed fiber optic cable that connects the United States with Europe. It spans approximately 4,000 miles (6,600 km) from Virginia Beach, Virginia to Bilbao, Spain, and was jointly funded by Microsoft and Facebook. The cable was designed to handle up to 160 terabits of data per second, making it one of the fastest transatlantic cables in existence.
Construction of the MAREA cable began in August 2016 and was completed in September 2017. The cable was laid on the ocean floor by a specialized ship equipped with a plow to bury the cable beneath the seabed. The cable is composed of eight fiber pairs, each capable of transmitting data independently, providing a total of 16 fiber optic cables.
The MAREA cable was built to provide increased capacity and faster data transfer speeds between the United States and Europe. It is designed to be resilient against natural disasters and has multiple landing points along its route to allow for redundancy in case of an outage. The cable is also equipped with advanced monitoring technology to ensure that any issues can be quickly identified and resolved.
The MAREA submarine cable has already had a significant impact on global communications, providing faster and more reliable connectivity between the United States and Europe. Its construction also represents a major step forward in the development of undersea fiber optic cables, which are essential for global communication and data transfer.