Meta’s 4,300-Mile Petal Cable Will Carry 1 Million Gbps Between the U.S. and France
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is funding and operating a new 4,300-mile (7,000-kilometer) undersea fiber-optic cable that will connect the United States and France. Called Petal, the cable is designed to transfer data at speeds of up to 1 million gigabits per second (Gbps).
That is equivalent to moving approximately 125 terabytes of data every second—enough for about 25,000 high-definition movies, each measuring 5 gigabytes. The system could also provide enough capacity to stream music to 75% of the world’s population at the same time.
Petal will deliver petabit capacity across the Atlantic
When it becomes operational in 2029, Petal will be the first transoceanic submarine cable to deliver petabit capacity, according to Meta’s announcement. Its capacity will be twice that of existing submarine cables of similar length.
Petal will also be the first commercial submarine cable system to use multicore fiber technology. Traditional fiber strands generally contain a single core, while each Petal fiber strand will contain two cores that transmit optical signals in opposite directions. This allows one strand to provide the capacity that would traditionally require a pair of single-core fibers.
How Petal’s dual-core fiber works
Each fiber strand is approximately as thick as a human hair, measuring just 125 micrometers in diameter. Petal will contain 24 pairs of dual-core fiber, creating a total of 96 individual fiber cores. According to Meta engineers, those cores can carry the same amount of data as traditional 48 pairs of fiber.
Japanese technology company NEC will design and construct the Petal system, while Sumitomo Electric will supply the fiber.
“Achieving petabits per second of capacity across transoceanic submarine systems represents a major technological milestone in the history of global telecommunications.”
Eduardo Mateo, NEC’s chief strategy officer for submarine networks
Why undersea cables are critical to the internet
Submarine cables form a crucial part of the internet’s global infrastructure. According to the International Telecommunication Union, these cables carry about 99% of the world’s internet traffic, depending on traffic conditions.
Installing thousands of miles of fragile glass fiber beneath the ocean is a major engineering challenge. The cables must also transmit tiny optical signals reliably over long distances. Fiber-optic systems use infrared light to carry data without significantly affecting performance over those distances.
Repeaters amplify Petal’s signal across 4,300 miles
Submarine cables use repeaters—amplifiers installed at regular intervals—to strengthen optical signals. A 4,300-mile undersea cable typically requires approximately 100 repeaters, Meta representatives said.
Petal will use a system called fan-in/fan-out technology. When a two-core fiber strand reaches a repeater, an optical interface routes the signal from each core into a separate single-core fiber. Each signal can then be amplified independently before being returned to the two cores of the dual-core strand.
By combining this signal-processing system with dual-core fiber, Petal is designed to double data-transmission capacity without proportionally increasing power requirements, according to Meta.
Meta’s growing investment in submarine cables
Petal is one of several submarine-cable projects supported by Meta in recent years. The company has invested in systems including Marea in 2018, Amitie in 2023 and Anjana in 2025.
Marea, Meta’s first transatlantic fiber facility, supports 192 terabits per second. Petal is expected to provide more than five times that capacity when it becomes operational in 2029.
Source: www.livescience.com