Google is teaming up with Facebook to build a mammoth undersea fibre-optic cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, which they say will produce the highest internet speeds in the Asia Pacific region. Google's Cloud Platform unit announced the project on Wednesday.
The Pacific Light Cable Network will be the first direct submarine cable system between the two cities. With an estimated cable capacity of 120 Tbps (terabits per second), the cabling will allow users to have 80 million HD video conference calls simultaneously between Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
The PLCN is "designed to accommodate evolving infrastructure technology, allowing us to independently choose network equipment and refresh optical technology as it advances", Google said in a blogpost. It also promised "lower latency, more security and greater bandwidth" to users in the Asia-Pacific region.
The 12,800-km network will be highest-capacity one of its kind on the trans-Pacific route. The record is currently held by FASTER, Google's fibre-optic cable network between the United States and Japan, which has a capacity of up to 10 Tbps.
Facebook and Google will also partner with communications firms TE SubCom and Pacific Light Data Communication for the project, which Google said it expects to be operational by 2018. TE SubCom said: "It is certainly gratifying that global technology companies like Google and Facebook have become co-investors in PLCN. It is a strong signal that PLCN will be trusted to address the capacity needs for internet and international communications services throughout the Pacific Rim."
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