Facebook and Google eye Asia-Pacific markets amid plans for new subsea cable
Facebook and Google announced today their plans to build a new subsea cable to improve internet connectivity across the Asia-Pacific region.
Apricot, the 12,000-kilometre-long subsea cable, will connect Singapore, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia. It is expected to be ready for service in 2024, according to Facebook.
The US social media group continued the cable system will have an initial design capacity of more than 190 terabits per second, which will help meet the growing demand for 4G, 5G, and broadband access in the region.
In March, Facebook announced two transpacific cables connecting Singapore, Indonesia and the US west coast, Bifrost and Echo, with Google participating in the latter.
Google said in a blog post that the Echo and Apricot cables are complementary submarine systems that will ensure the resilience of Google Cloud and other digital services.
“Together they will provide businesses and startups in Asia with lower latency, more bandwidth, and increased resilience in their connectivity between Southeast Asia, North Asia and the US,” Google added.