MAREA

MAREA is a very long underwater cable that stretches 6,605 kilometers (4,104 miles) across the Atlantic Ocean. It connects the United States with Spain, helping people and businesses in both countries share information quickly over the internet.

This special cable is owned by big technology companies Microsoft and Facebook. But the actual building and running of the cable are done by a company called Telxius. Telxius is part of a larger Spanish telecom company named Telefónica.

When it was finished in 2019, MAREA was the cable that could carry the most information in the world. It could move data at an amazing speed of 200 terabits every second. This helps make sure that people can watch videos, send messages, and do other things online without any delay, even if they are far apart.

History

In May 2016, Microsoft, Facebook, and Telxius announced the MAREA project. They said it would give the Eastern United States a faster way to send information to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and even Asia. This idea started after problems caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.

Construction started in August 2016 and finished in September 2017. It linked Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the United States, with Sopelana near Bilbao, Spain. The cable began working in February 2018. In January 2019, Telxius shared that AWS would use part of the cable to help send information faster.

Operation

Telxius built and runs the MAREA cable, linking Virginia Beach, Virginia in the United States to Sopelana, Spain near Bilbao. Originally planned for 160 terabits per second, scientists later achieved speeds of 26.2 terabits per second per fiber pair, surpassing early expectations.

Weighing about 4.65 million kilograms, the cable consists of eight pairs of fiber-optic cable bundles. The name "marea" translates to "tide" in Spanish.