Google and Facebook have jointly announced that in 2024 they will participate in the development of a new submarine cable system to improve Internet connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Facebook said, that this infrastructure project, called Apricot, will connect Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Indonesia to help meet people's growing demand for broadband and 5G wireless connections.
In March of this year, the company announced two trans-Pacific submarine cables, Bifrost and Echo. They connect Singapore and the West Coast of the United States. Google participated in the construction of the latter.
In turn, Google said in its blog that Echo and Apricot are two connected underwater systems that will increase the flexibility of Google Cloud and other digital services of the company. The initial design capacity of this new optical link in the Asia-Pacific region exceeds 190 megabits per second.
Currently, the two giants of Silicon Valley are investing in building Internet infrastructure in areas where they believe there is the greatest potential for growth. Google also announced a $10 billion investment plan last year. The latter should help India advance the digitization process in the next 5-7 years.
Internet access will also be available in Africa
Also, we learned that Facebook is building a huge submarine cable around Africa. When completed, it will be able to bring more than 1,3 billion inhabitants of the continent online.
As you understand, such large projects cannot be implemented alone. Facebook is partnering with companies such as China Mobile, South Africa's MTN, France's Orange and Britain's Vodafone, as well as local network operators, on a project called 2Africa.
"2Africa is a continuation of our ongoing efforts to expand our global network infrastructure," Facebook said in a statement. "We are working with partners around the world to build several submarine fiber optic cables that lead the industry in terms of reach, power and flexibility."
In addition, Facebook is one of the initiators and investors. The work is carried out by the responsible supplier of cable systems Nokia, which deals with Alcatel's underwater networks. The new submarine cable system will have a length of 37 kilometers. According to Facebook, the cable will be "nearly the circumference of the Earth."
Neither side disclosed details of the investment. But we know that these submarine cables will connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Facebook says it will "deliver nearly three times the network capacity of all submarine cables serving Africa today."
