Both the US IT giants Facebook and Microsoft have decided to go underwater.

To help speed up their global internet services, the two technology companies recently made the announcement that they are going to install an undersea cable from the east coast of the US to Spain.

Facebook, which wants to encourage users across the world to broadcast live video and meet in virtual reality, is more concerned with the connectivity issues in various parts of the world and high speed internet availability is particularly important to it. Both the activities of live video broadcasting and virtual reality can consume vast amounts of bandwidth.

Until now undersea cables have traditionally been laid by telecommunications incumbents and the project marks yet another example where technology companies are assuming roles traditionally left to public utilities or the government.

Other tech companies are not far behind in help enhancing high speed internet and connectivity. While Amazon.com effectively is building its own postal service, Uber is attempting to replace regulated cab companies and Facebook is bringing wireless internet to Africa, Google continues to expand Fiber, its high-speed internet program.

In effect, the two companies – Facebook and Microsoft, will have their own private internet highway between two the major markets. The cable will stretch to Bilbao in Spain starting off from northern Virginia in the US which is a major junction point in the global internet. From Spain, the cable would travel onward to the rest of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It will be highest-capacity undersea cable yet across the Atlantic, the companies said. The cost of the entire project wasn’t disclosed.

The cable would be managed by an infrastructure-focused subsidiary of Telefónica, the Spanish telecom provider. Construction for the undersea cable is scheduled to begin in August 2016 and be completed by October 2017.

Facebook and Microsoft are ensuring they will get premier access to quick data transfers across the sea even though Telefónica will sell access to the cable to other companies. In effect, the companies will have their own private highway between two major markets.

In between America and Europe, there are more than a dozen undersea cables at present.

The assumption of how much bandwidth Facebook and Microsoft will need in the future is accentuated by the decision for the two companies to build their own cable network.

How Facebook envision two users on different continents meeting up virtually online using elaborate systems of headsets, cameras and other monitors was shown by the company executives at Facebook’s developer conference in San Francisco in April. The experience will require an extraordinary amount of space on the internet’s backbone.

The market dominance of Facebook would be maintained by the company’s ability to fund its own cable now. Facebook simply will have its own even as other upstart virtual reality companies will have to buy space on others’ undersea cables.

(Adapted from The Guardian)