US internet giants Facebook and Google announced Monday that they plan to invest in new submarine cables for data transit linking North America to Singapore and Indonesia.
Read also: Facebook withdraws its application for a construction permit for a submarine cable connected to Hong Kong
Facebook will collaborate with regional and global partners on two projects, titled Echo and Bifrost, while Google has only confirmed its investment in Echo.
According to Facebook, these cables, which are to connect the west coast of the United States to the two countries of Southeast Asia by crossing the Pacific Ocean and the Java Sea and passing through the island of Guam, will increase by 70% total capacity of transpacific data transfer.
"
Around the globe, the Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for reliable access to the internet,
" said in a blog post on Monday Kevin Salvadori and Nico Roehrich, heads of network investments at Facebook.
“
Echo and Bifrost will help hundreds of millions of people and millions of businesses grow even more,
” they add.
Echo operational in 2023
Bikash Koley, vice president of international networks at Google Cloud, indicates for his part that "
the unique transpacific route (of Echo, note) to Southeast Asia will bypass the traditional roads packed to the north
".
Echo is expected to be operational in 2023 and Bifrost is scheduled for 2024.
In early March, Facebook and Google had decided to stop their efforts to build an undersea cable that should have linked California and Hong Kong, because of tensions between the United States and China.
The US Department of Justice had previously recommended that this trans-Pacific submarine cable bypass Hong Kong.
Read also: The new geopolitics of submarine cables
For the construction of the two new cables, Facebook said it is working with Indonesian companies Telin and XL Axiata as well as with the Keppel group, based in Singapore.