MAREA Submarine Cable System
Highest-capacity trans-Atlantic submarine cable of its era, linking Virginia Beach to Bilbao across 6,600 km
Open it on the earth: cut a link, lose a siteWorkbook (DC Sim template v1.4)
The story
MAREA was jointly planned and funded by Microsoft and Facebook (now Meta) to secure high-capacity trans-Atlantic connectivity independent of congested New York cable corridors. Landed further south between Virginia Beach and Sopelana near Bilbao, the 6,605 km cable features eight fiber pairs and introduced open-cable architecture allowing partners to upgrade optical transponders independently. Completed in late 2017 and operated by Telefónica's Telxius, MAREA reached over 200 Tbps with advanced modulation, establishing Virginia Beach as a premier US East Coast subsea gateway.
Notable
- Jointly funded by Microsoft and Meta (then Facebook) to provide dedicated high-capacity trans-Atlantic connectivity.
- Constructed with 8 fiber pairs and initially designed for 160 Tbps, later upgraded to over 200 Tbps with advanced modulation.
- Landed south of traditional North Atlantic cable routes to enhance trans-Atlantic network resilience against storms.
- Operated and managed by Telefónica infrastructure subsidiary Telxius across 6,605 kilometers of Atlantic seabed.
Sites
| Code | Place | Role | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAB | Virginia Beach, United States | landing | Telxius |
| BIO | Bilbao, Spain | landing | Telxius |
Links
| From | To | Type | Capacity | Length | Year | Protected | Est. one-way latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VAB | BIO | submarine | 200 Tbps | 6,605 km | 2017 | no | ≈ 45.4 ms |
Latency marked ≈ is our estimate from the great-circle distance × 1.5 at 5 µs per km, not the operator's figure.
Sources
- Microsoft, Facebook and Telxius complete highest-capacity subsea cable across the Atlantic · Microsoft · 2017-09-21
- MAREA Submarine Cable · Telxius
Part of the open famous data centers dataset (CC BY 4.0). Updated 2026-10-15.
What is MAREA Submarine Cable System famous for?
Highest-capacity trans-Atlantic submarine cable of its era, linking Virginia Beach to Bilbao across 6,600 km
How many sites and links does MAREA Submarine Cable System have in this dataset?
2 sites and 1 links, of which 1 are recorded as not protected. Figures are from the public sources listed on the page.
Who operates MAREA Submarine Cable System?
Telxius (co-owned by Telxius, Meta, Microsoft)