Facebook announced that it is planning two new undersea cables. These cables are meant to connect Singapore, Indonesia, and North America. This is about a project with Google and other regional telecommunication companies. The purpose is to boost internet connection capacity between these regions.
“Named Echo and Bifrost, those 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%,” Facebook Vice President of Network Investments, Kevin Salvadori, told Reuters.
Although he did not specify the size of this investment but mentioned that it was “a very material investment for us in Southeast Asia.”
The executive said that the undersea cables would be the first that will connect North America directly to some parts of Indonesia. This will increase connectivity for the eastern and central provinces of the world’s fourth most populous country.
The two cables that will need regulatory approval use the previous investments by Facebook to build up connectivity in Indonesia. For a fact, Indonesia is one of its top five markets around the globe.
With 73% of 270 million of Indonesia’s population are online, they primarily access the web via mobile data. Less than 10% of people use broadband connection as per the 2020 survey. The Indonesian Internet Providers Association did this survey.
Facebook decided to deploy around 3,000 km of fiber in Indonesia the last year. This will cover around twenty cities of the country. The previous deal of developing public Wi-Fi hot spots was also under consideration.
“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 shortly,” the executive said.
In addition to this, Facebook decided to drop efforts for connection between California and Hong Kong. This was because of ongoing concerns from the US government.
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