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| Facebook and Google are building new submarine cables |
Facebook announced on Monday that as part of a project with Google and regional telecom companies to improve interregional internet capabilities, two new submarine cables will be built connecting Singapore, Indonesia and North America.
Kevin Salvadori, Vice President of Network Investments at Facebook, said: The two cables, Echo and Bifrost, will create a new, diversified route across the Java Sea, increasing the submarine’s overall capacity. The Pacific region is reduced from the first two cables by approximately 70%.
The executive said it would be the first cable to connect North America directly with some of the main regions in Indonesia, strengthening ties with the central and eastern provinces in the fourth largest country in the world.
“The Echo cable was built in cooperation with Google and the Indonesian telecom company XL Axiata and is expected to be completed in 2023,” said Salvadori.
Bifrost is being jointly executed by Telin, a subsidiary of Telkom in Indonesia, and Keppel, a large company in Singapore, and is expected to be completed in 2024.
Both cables must be approved by the regulator and represent the connection established in Indonesia after the previous investment by Facebook, which is one of the five largest markets in the world.
73% of the 270 million people in Indonesia are online, but most people access the internet through mobile data and less than 10% use broadband.
In large parts of the country there is still no internet connection. Facebook announced last year that in addition to the previous decade to develop public wireless hotspots, 3,000 kilometers of fiber had been laid in 20 Indonesian cities.
In addition to cables in Southeast Asia, Salvadori said, Facebook continues its largest submarine projects in Asia and around the world, including PLCN.
He added: We are working with partners and regulators to solve any problems of concern to people and we hope this cable will become a high performance cable across the Pacific in the near future.
The 12,800-km-long National Congress Party, funded by Facebook and Google, faced opposition from the United States government in planning to build a canal in Hong Kong that was originally intended to connect the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Facebook announced earlier this month that cable business between California and Hong Kong had been halted as the United States government continued to pay attention to direct connections between the United States and Hong Kong.