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Facebook, Google Announce Plans for Undersea Cables Joining Asia, North
America

VOA News

   After canceling plans for undersea cables connecting the United States
   with Hong Kong because of U.S. government pressure, Facebook and Google
   now say they will run similar cables to Singapore and Indonesia.
   "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's vice president of network investments, Kevin Salvadori, told
   the Reuters news agency.
   Salvadori would not comment on the cost of the project.
   He said the Echo cable, which is being built in partnership with Google
   and Indonesian telecommunications company XL, would be completed by
   2023.
   Bifrost, which is being done in partnership with Telin, a subsidiary of
   Indonesia's Telkom, and Singapore's Keppel Corporation, should be
   completed by 2024, he said.
   Both projects will need regulatory approval.
   Most Indonesians who have internet access get it via mobile phones,
   Reuters reported, adding that only 10% have broadband access. Many have
   no access at all.
   Facebook said plans for the cable to Hong Kong were scrapped because
   the U.S. government cited national security concerns about direct
   communication links to Hong Kong.
   Facebook and Google are involved in other cable projects around the
   world.
   Facebook announced last May that it was going to build a
   37,000-kilometer-long undersea cable around Africa.
   Google's project, the Equiano undersea cable, could connect Europe and
   Africa when finished.