Internet: Echo and Bifrost, two submarine cables between the US and Indonesia

• Optical fiber, Google wants to connect India and Europe with a single network

Share

March 29, 2021 - Google and Facebook will build two submarine data cables to connect the west coast of the

.

A project capable of increasing the overall capacity of transpacific data traffic by 70%.

, the names of the two cables, will increase connectivity for "hundreds of millions of people and businesses,"

explained

.

Mark Zuckerberg's company is investing in both cables, while Google is investing only in the Echo.

The decision comes after the two tech giants had to abandon a project to connect

to the US by cable

at the beginning of March

due to growing tensions between Washington and

.

The cost of the operation was not disclosed, but Echo will be "the first cable to connect the US to Singapore," said Bikash Koley, vice president of Google Cloud.

"These investments in cables reflect our commitment and our partnership model," Facebook added in the note.  

The goal is for Echo to be completed by the end of 2023, while Bifrost is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. Last May, Facebook announced plans to build a 37,000-kilometer undersea cable around

to ensure a better internet access, while Google is working on a submarine cable called

, which aims to connect Africa and Europe.