Tech giant Microsoft and social media site Facebook are to build a new state-of-the art subsea cable across the Atlantic Ocean.
They say the MAREA cable will help meet growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers.
Construction of the cable will start in August this year, with completion expected in October 2017.
"In order to better serve our customers and provide the type of reliable and low-latency connectivity they deserve, we are continuing to invest in new and innovative ways to continuously upgrade both the Microsoft Cloud and the global Internet infrastructure," said Frank Rey, director of global network acquisition at Microsoft.
The route of the new cable | Image: Microsoft
"This marks an important new step in building the next generation infrastructure of the Internet", he added.
The two companies are working with Telxius, Telefónica's telecommunications infrastructure company, on this new system.
Telxius will be the operator of it and sell capacity as part of their wholesale infrastructure business.
The cable will run from Virginia in the United States to Bilbao in northern Spain.
