MENLO PARK, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash., May 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT" @microsoft) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) announced an agreement to build a new, state-of-the-art subsea cable across the Atlantic. The new "MAREA" cable will help meet the growing customer demand for high speed, reliable connections for cloud and online services for Microsoft, Facebook and their customers. The parties have cleared conditions to go Contract-In-Force (CIF) with their plans, and construction of the cable will commence in August 2016 with completion expected in October 2017.

Microsoft and Facebook are collaborating on this system to accelerate the development of the next-generation of Internet infrastructure and support the explosion of data consumption and rapid growth of their respective cloud and online services. MAREA will be the highest-capacity subsea cable to ever cross the Atlantic - eight fiber pairs and an initial estimated design capacity of 160Tbps. The new 6,600 km submarine cable system, to be operated and managed by Telxius, Telefónica's new telecommunications infrastructure company, will also be the first to connect the United States to southern Europe, from the data hub of Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain and then to network hubs in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. This route is south of other transatlantic cable systems, thereby helping ensure more resilient and reliable connections for customers in the United States, Europe, and beyond.

Microsoft and Facebook designed MAREA to be interoperable with a variety of networking equipment. This new "open" design brings significant benefits for customers: lower costs and easier equipment upgrades which leads to faster growth in bandwidth rates since the system can evolve at the pace of optical technology innovation.

Microsoft and Facebook are working with Telxius to build upon Telefónica's longstanding experience in subsea cables on this innovative new system. Telxius will serve as the operator of the system and sell capacity as part of their wholesale infrastructure business.


    --  "As the world is increasingly moving toward a future based on cloud
        computing, Microsoft continues to invest in our cloud infrastructure to
        meet current and future growing global demand for our more than 200
        cloud services, including Bing, Office 365, Skype, Xbox Live and the
        Microsoft Azure platform," said Christian Belady, General Manager,
        Datacenter Strategy, Planning & Development, Microsoft Corp. "The MAREA
        transatlantic cable we're building with Facebook and Telxius will
        provide new, low-latency connectivity that will help meet the increasing
        demand for higher-speed capacity across the Atlantic. By building the
        cable along this new southern route, we will also increase the
        resiliency of our global network, helping ensure even greater
        reliability for our customers."
    --  "Facebook wants to make it possible for people to have deep connections
        and shared experiences with the people who matter to them most --
        anywhere in the world, and at any time," said Najam Ahmad, Vice
        President of Network Engineering at Facebook. "We're always evaluating
        new technologies and systems in order to provide the best connectivity
        possible. By creating a vendor-agnostic design with Microsoft and
        Telxius, we can choose the hardware and software that best serves the
        system and ultimately increase the pace of innovation. We want to do
        more of these projects in this manner -- allowing us to move fast with
        more collaboration. We think this is how most subsea cable systems will
        be built in the future."
    --  "Working with Facebook and Microsoft in this project will reinforce
        Telxius' position as a worldwide leading infra company not only
        expanding on-net capabilities to Spain and the USA but also allowing us
        to capture market opportunities in Western Europe and new emerging
        routes in Northern Africa and other regions," said Rafael Arranz, Chief
        Operating Officer of Telxius Cable.

Inquiries:
Sarah Sullivan
The OutCast Agency
ssullivan@theoutcastagency.com

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