Technology
New undersea cables will link Southeast Asia and America, according to Facebook and Google.
Facebook announced on Monday that it plans to build two new undersea cables to link Singapore, Indonesia, and North America as part of a partnership with Google and regional telecommunications companies to increase internet connectivity between the countries.
"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 per cent," Facebook Vice President of Network Investments, Kevin Salvadori, told Reuters.
According to the executive, the cables will be the first to link North America to some of the most important parts of Indonesia, which will improve connectivity for the country's central and eastern provinces.
"Echo" is being developed in collaboration with Alphabet's Google and XL Axiata, an Indonesian telecommunications firm, and is expected to be completed by 2023, according to Salvadori.
Bifrost, which is being built in collaboration with Telin, an Indonesian subsidiary of Telkomsel, and Singaporean conglomerate Keppel, is expected to be finished in 2024.
The two cables, which will require regulatory approval, follow Facebook's previous investments in improving connectivity in Indonesia, one of its top five global markets.
According to a 2020 survey by the Indonesian Internet Providers Association, although 73% of Indonesia's 270 million people are online, the majority do so through mobile data, with less than 10% using a broadband link.
Large swaths of the world also lack internet connectivity.
In addition to a previous agreement to build public Wi-Fi hotspots, Facebook announced last year that it would deploy 3,000 km (1,8641 miles) of metro fiber across twenty cities in Indonesia.
