Google and Facebook announce the construction of an undersea cable between Singapore and Japan

Google and Facebook have expressed their participation in the project to lay the Apricot, a new submarine cable connecting Singapore, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan. There have also been reports that Facebook is carrying out large-scale cable businesses in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Facebook and Gueul each announced their participation in Apricot through their official blogs. The 1,200 km long submarine cable connecting Singapore, Indonesia, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan boasts a communication capacity of more than 190 terabits per second, and the service is scheduled to start in 2024.

Google and Facebook are growing rapidly in the field of submarine cables, and research shows that 80% of recently installed transatlantic submarine cables are from both companies. Google announced preparations for the operation of the Dunant submarine cable linking the United States and France in February 2021, and Facebook also announced the submarine cables Echo and Bifrost to cross the Pacific Ocean in March 2021. Google is also participating in Echo.

According to Google, Apricot and Echo are complementary systems and are expected to greatly increase the resilience of digital services, including Google Cloud. Facebook also announced plans to lay submarine cables that will provide Internet access throughout Africa, expanding 2Africa and adding new Seychelles, Comoros, Angola and Nigeria.

Facebook also announced that it has applied to regulators for approval to operate a new submarine cable linking the Philippines and the United States in collaboration with Amazon. This submarine cable was originally planned at a home where three companies, including China Mobile, a Chinese telecommunication company, connected communication networks to Hong Kong and other countries, but the US government expressed disapproval due to defense concerns and supported Hong Kong autonomy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a one country two system. The license was not obtained because it was practically terminated due to the enforcement of the National Safety Maintenance Act.

Therefore, both Facebook and Amazon gave up the Hong Kong cable connection, and China Mobile also withdrew from the plan, and then applied again. Under the new plan, the submarine cable will be a 12,000 km long submarine cable linking the Philippines and California across the Pacific Ocean, with operation scheduled for 2022.

Facebook said it had reached an agreement with the project parties, saying it was best to review the cable system owner to complete the cable construction and put the system into operation. Related information can be found here.