Facebook and Google fund new undersea internet cables to Asia – Business Insider

• Facebook and Google announced plans to fund two new transpacific internet cables.
• The cables — Bifrost and Echo — are expected to link the US West Coast with Indonesia and Singapore.
• Both Facebook and Google recently abandoned cable projects linking the US and Hong Kong.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Facebook and Google are pouring more money into internet cables that could span the Pacific Ocean.

The tech giants announced Monday they’re funding two new cables. The cables, called Bifrost and Echo, are expected to link America’s West Coast to Indonesia and Singapore, with a stopover in Guam, the US island territory in the western Pacific.

Facebook is investing in both cables, while Google is funding Echo only.

In a press release on Monday, Facebook said the cables would increase transpacific internet capacity by 70%. CNBC reported that Echo was scheduled for completion by late 2023, and Bifrost by late 2024.

Facebook and Google are partnering with the Indonesian companies Telin and XL Axiata as well as the Singaporean company Keppel.

Read more: We identified the 195 most powerful people at Google under CEO Sundar Pichai. Explore our exclusive org chart.

Both Facebook and Google recently abandoned plans to lay transpacific cables linking the US and Hong Kong.

Facebook announced on March 10 that it was withdrawing from a plan called the Hong Kong-Americas project, following political pressure from the US government.

In September, a joint Facebook-Google cable project was abandoned because of the Trump administration’s national security concerns about laying cables to China. In the same month, Facebook deserted a project to link San Francisco to Hong Kong.

Facebook is also working on a project laying an enormous undersea cable around Africa, while Google is working on cables linking the US to Europe as well as Europe with the west coast of Africa.