Google and Facebook have teamed up to dominate the other side of the Pacific. How? The tech giants are already working with a subsidiary of China Soft Power Technology, Pacific Light Data Communication, to lay an 8,000-mile cable from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. With this venture, Google and Facebook aims to provide a faster and more reliable service to its customers.
Google stated that they will have a major stake in the cable network. Facebook will also get a large chunk and the rest will be distributed to other companies like FASTER, MONET, SJC, Tannat and Unity.
A Fast 24 Tbps For Each Fiber
The new cable network will be composed of five fiber pairs, with a single one of each pair providing at least 24 Tbps of bandwidth. Once completed and running at full capacity in 2018, the new cable network will be the fastest cable in the trans-Pacific unless another company builds another cable network with a higher bandwidth capacity. The new ocean network is also designed to specifically stay out of tsunami zones to prevent outages. According to an earlier statement from Google, the network expansion is meant to accommodate more and more people from Asia who go online more than any other people in the world.
Not The First Partnership For Google
This is not the first time that tech giants have partnered together to build underwater cables that will help them provide a faster service to their clients. Just recently, Facebook has also teamed up with Microsoft to build a cable network that is half as long with their current partnership with Google and a higher bandwidth at 160 Tbps. Amazon is also starting to have its own submarine cables but they have yet to find a partner for their venture.
Late last year, an announcement was made regarding the construction of new cable network across the pacific. No mention of Facebook nor Google was made during the announcement.
