Microsoft and Facebook on Thursday announced they will work together to lay a high-speed Internet cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

A new, sub-sea "MAREA" cable was expected to be completed by late 2017, with the aim of meeting growing demand by the tech companies' customers for fast, reliable data connections.

"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, " Microsoft data center strategy general manager Christian Belady said in a release.

MAREA will be the highest-capacity sub-sea cable ever crossing the Atlantic, with an expected capacity of some 160 terabytes per second of data, according to the companies.

The 6,600 kilometer cable system will also be the first connecting the United States and southern Europe, running from Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain, Microsoft and Facebook said.

From Spain, the data network will link to hubs in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and other parts of Europe, according to the companies.

Microsoft and Facebook said that they are working with global communications company Telxius, owned by Telefonica, on the cable project.

"We're always evaluating new technologies and systems in order to provide the best connectivity possible," said Facebook vice president of network engineering Najam Ahmad.

"We want to do more of these projects in this manner - allowing us to move fast with more collaboration."

Microsoft bought into Facebook nine years ago, paying $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the leading social network.

Facebook extends lead as news gateway: study
Washington (AFP) May 26, 2016 - Facebook has become an important news source for close to half of American adults, a study showed Thursday amid increased scrutiny over the social network's gateway role.

The Pew Research Center survey showed 62 percent of US adults get news on social media, and 18 percent do so often.

That shows a growing role for Facebook and other social networks as a news source. In 2012, based on a slightly different question, 49 percent of American adults reported seeing news on social media, Pew said.

According to the survey, 66 percent of Facebook users get news on the site, as did 59 percent of Twitter users and seven of 10 users of Reddit.

Because Facebook reaches some two-thirds of US adults, the survey indicates that 44 percent of the overall population gets at least some news through the leading social network.

The survey comes with Facebook defending itself against allegations that it suppressed some conservative news content in its "trending" topics.

Last week, Facebook said was unable to substantiate any specific accusations of bias, but announced it was updating guidelines to be clearer that content decisions may not be based on politics or ideology.

The news team will be subject to more oversight and controls, and Facebook will no longer rely on lists of external websites and news outlets to assess the importance of topics in stories.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met with a group of conservative political leaders and told them the network was "a platform for all ideas."

Still, the row over the Facebook allegations has highlighted concerns that social media is increasingly becoming a gateway to news for many readers.

According to the new Pew study, users of Facebook YouTube and Instagram are more likely to get their news by chance, when they are online doing other things.

However, those who use Reddit, Twitter and LinkedIn often seek out news online as often as they stumble upon it.

In coordination with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Pew surveyed 4,654 American adults by mail and online from January 12 to February 8. The margin of error for the full group was estimated at 2.4 percentage points.