Facebook and Google partner to connect North America to Southeast Asia with undersea cables

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Facebook announced earlier this week that it is planning two new undersea cables to connect Singapore, Indonesia and North America as part of a project with Google and regional telecommunications companies to increase internet connection capacity between the regions.

“Named Echo and Bifrost, these will be the first two norway email list cables to run on a new diversified route across the Java Sea, and they will increase overall subsea capacity in the trans-Pacific by about 70%,” said Kevin Salvadori, Facebook’s director of network investments. He declined to specify the size of the investment, but said it was a very significant investment for the company in Southeast Asia.

The cables, Salvadori said, will be the first to directly connect North America to some of Indonesia’s major regions and will increase connectivity for the central and eastern provinces of the world’s fourth most populous country. He also said Echo is being built in partnership with Alphabet’s Google and Indonesian telecom company XL Axiata and is expected to be completed by 2023. Bifrost is being built in partnership with Telkom Indonesia’s Telin and Singaporean conglomerate Keppel and is expected to be completed by 2024.

The two cables, which will require regulatory approval, follow Facebook’s previous investments to boost connectivity in Indonesia, one of its top five global markets. While 73% of Indonesia’s population of 270 million is online, the majority access the web via mobile data, with less than 10% using a broadband connection, according to a 2020 survey by the Indonesian Internet Providers Association.