GoKawiilMeta unveils Petal, a 1 Pbps transatlantic subsea cable due in 2029
Meta has announced Petal, a new subsea cable linking France and the United States that will deliver 1 petabit per second of bandwidth, double the capacity of its existing Anjana cable. The 4,000-plus mile cable uses 48 fiber pairs in a two-core design and is being built with NEC and Sumitomo Electric Industries, with Orange supporting the French landing point. Meta expects Petal to enter service in 2029.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The project signals how major tech firms are directly investing in physical internet infrastructure to secure capacity for growing data demands rather than relying solely on third-party carriers. Meta's comparison of Petal's capacity to global low-bitrate music streaming illustrates scale rather than a real-world use case, since actual traffic includes far more data-intensive services like video and AI workloads. Given past incidents of subsea cable damage and sabotage, expanding this critical infrastructure could also raise fresh security and resilience considerations.
- Petal will connect France and the US with 1 Pbps of bandwidth, twice Meta's existing Anjana cable.
- The cable uses a novel two-core, 48-fiber-pair design built by NEC and Sumitomo Electric Industries.
- Meta expects Petal to enter service in 2029, with Orange supporting the French landing.
Source: tomshardware.com — Oliver Haslam, 2026-09-23
Published there as: “Meta's new transoceanic undersea cable boasts a whopping petabit of bandwidth”
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