Facebook, Google Installing 12,800 Km Undersea Cable Between US And SE-Asia

Facebook has announced that it is going to team up with search engine giant, Google to install two new undersea cables to connect Singapore, Indonesia with North America, along with regional telecommunication companies to better the internet connection capacity in these regions.

Reuters

As reported by Reuters, the 12,800 long cables are going to be named Echo and Bifrost. According to Facebook VP of Network Investments, Kevin Salvadori, these will be ¡°the first two cables to go through a new diverse route crossing the Java Sea and they will increase overall subsea capacity in the trans-pacific by about 70 percent.¡±

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According to Salvadori, these cables would be the first to directly connect North America to the main parts of Indonesia while also bettering connectivity for the central and eastern provinces of the nation.

Out of the two cables, the Echo is actually being developed in partnership with Google and Indonesian telecom giant XL Axiata. They plan on completing the work for this by the year 2023.

Bifrost on the other hand is being developed by Facebook in collaboration with Telin, a subsidiary of Indonesia¡¯s Telkomsel and Singapore-based Keppel. This cable is set to be up and running by 2024.

The cables however would require regulatory approvals, following previous investments by Facebook to form connectivity in the nation, which it regards as one of its top 5 markets globally.

Unlike India, a majority of users in Indonesia -- roughly 270 million -- are using the internet through mobile data with less than 10 percent users using broadband or hard-wired connection, based on a survey by the Indonesian Internet Providers Association. Even today, a major chunk of users in the nation are disconnected from the internet.

Facebook, last year had announced that it would be installing a 3000-kilometre long fibre connection in Indonesia across twenty cities of the nation along with another deal to install Wi-Fi hotspots. Alongside it was also working to expand the network in Asia with the world through the Pacific Light Cable Network.

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Salvadori added, "We are working with partners and regulators to meet all of the concerns that people have, and we look forward to that cable being a valuable, productive transpacific cable going forward in the near future.¡±

Facebook and Google also had plans to create a special channel for Hong Kong that would have connected Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines along the way but dropped the efforts after the US government highlighted concerns surrounding direct communication link between the US and Hong Kong.