Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is developing a massive undersea internet cable designed to transmit data at an extraordinary speed of 1 million gigabits per second. Named Petal, the 4,300-mile (approximately 7,000-kilometre) cable will connect the United States and France, creating a powerful new link across the Atlantic Ocean.
Expected to become operational by 2029, the project represents a significant step forward in global internet infrastructure as demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital services continues to grow.
What Is the Petal Undersea Cable?
Petal is a transatlantic fibre-optic cable system designed to carry up to one petabit of data per second. One petabit equals 1,000 terabits, or 1 million gigabits.
At its theoretical maximum capacity, the system could transfer approximately 125 terabytes of data every second. This is vastly greater than the speeds available through ordinary home broadband connections.
Meta is working with Japanese technology companies NEC and Sumitomo Electric Industries on the project. The cable is intended to provide substantial additional capacity for international data traffic between North America and Europe.
How Does the Cable Achieve Such High Speeds?
The key innovation is its use of multi-core optical fibre technology. Traditional optical fibres typically carry light signals through a single core, whereas multi-core fibres contain multiple light-guiding cores within the same fibre structure.
Petal is designed around 24 pairs of dual-core fibres, providing 48 spatial channels for transmitting data. This architecture increases capacity without requiring a proportional increase in the number of separate physical fibres.
The cable will also use approximately 100 repeaters along its route. These devices amplify optical signals to compensate for losses over long distances, helping data travel across the Atlantic while maintaining signal quality.
The system’s design aims to increase transmission capacity while managing power consumption and the physical requirements of a transoceanic cable.
Why Does the World Need Faster Undersea Cables?
Although people often associate the internet with satellites, mobile towers and data centres, undersea fibre-optic cables carry the overwhelming majority of international data traffic.
These cables support video streaming, international phone calls, financial transactions, cloud services and communications between data centres. As businesses increasingly depend on AI models and cloud computing, the volume of data moving between continents is expected to rise further.
Meta’s own platforms also generate enormous quantities of traffic through video, messaging, social networking and AI-powered services. Greater cable capacity can help the company accommodate growing demand and strengthen the reliability of its global infrastructure.
Could Petal Change Everyday Internet Speeds?
Petal’s enormous capacity does not mean that consumers will suddenly receive internet connections running at one million gigabits per second. The figure represents the cable system’s aggregate transmission capacity, not the speed available to an individual user.
Everyday broadband performance will continue to depend on local networks, internet service providers, routers, servers and the capacity allocated to particular connections.
However, additional international bandwidth could help reduce congestion, improve resilience and support the expansion of data-intensive services.
When Will Petal Be Operational?
Meta expects Petal to enter service by 2029. The project forms part of a broader industry effort to build higher-capacity international networks as AI, cloud infrastructure and digital communications expand.
Summary
Meta is developing Petal, a 4,300-mile undersea fibre-optic cable connecting the United States and France, with a planned capacity of 1 million gigabits per second. Using multi-core fibre technology and optical repeaters, the system is expected to become operational by 2029. It will strengthen international data infrastructure, although its aggregate capacity will not translate directly into equivalent speeds for individual internet users.
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