Google and Facebook announce the installation of a new submarine cable 'Apricot' that connects Japan and the world

Google and Facebook have announced their participation in the 'Apricot' laying project, a new submarine cable connecting Japan, Singapore, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia. Facebook is also reported to have large-scale submarine cable operations in countries such as Africa and Southeast Asia.

New Apricot subsea cable brings more connectivity to Asia | Google Cloud Blog
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/new-apricot-subsea-cable-brings-more-connectivity-to-asia

Apricot subsea cable for Asia-Pacific region --Facebook Engineering
https://engineering.fb.com/2021/08/15/connectivity/apricot-subsea-cable/

Google and Facebook's New Cable to Link Japan and Southeast Asia --Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-16/google-and-facebook-s-new-cable-to-link-japan-and-southeast-asia

Facebook and Google have announced their participation in 'Apricot' on their official blogs. The 1200km-long submarine cable that connects Japan, Singapore, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia boasts a communication capacity of over 190 terabits per second, and the service is scheduled to start in 2024.

Google and Facebook are booming in the field of submarine cables, and Bloomberg found that 80% of the recently installed transatlantic submarine cables come from both companies.

In February 2021, Google announced that the submarine cable 'Dunant' connecting the United States and France was ready for operation.

Google announces that it is ready to operate the submarine cable 'Dunant' that connects the United States and France --GIGAZINE

by wck

Facebook also announced the submarine cables 'Echo' and 'Bifrost' that cross the Pacific Ocean in March 2021. Google is also involved in the former for 'Echo'.

Facebook and Google are planning the world's first submarine cable connecting Southeast Asia and North America --GIGAZINE

According to Google, 'Apricot' and 'Echo' are complementary systems and are expected to significantly improve the fault tolerance of digital services such as Google Cloud.

Facebook also announced that it will expand the submarine cable laying plan '2Africa', which provides the Internet throughout Africa, and add new Seychelles, Comoro Islands, Angola and Nigeria. You can find out more about '2 Africa' by reading the following articles.

Facebook announces the world's largest submarine cable laying design '2 Africa' that provides the Internet throughout Africa --GIGAZINE

Facebook also announced that it has applied with regulators to approve a new submarine cable operation connecting the Philippines and the United States in collaboration with Amazon.

Facebook, Amazon seek US approval to operate undersea data cable | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-amazon-seek-us-approval-operate-undersea-data-cable-2021-08-13/

Facebook and Amazon seek Philippines-California cable approval after China Mobile drops out --DCD
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/facebook-and-amazon-seek-philippines-california-cable-approval-after-china-mobile-drops-out/

Initially, three companies, including China Mobile, a Chinese telecommunications company, were planning to connect this submarine cable to Hong Kong and other areas, but the U.S. government was reluctant due to national defense concerns. In addition to the above, permission was not granted due to the fact that the 'one country, two governments' that supported Hong Kong's autonomy were virtually terminated by the enforcement of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region National Security Law.

Therefore, both Facebook and Amazon abandoned the cable connection to Hong Kong, and after withdrawing China Mobile from the plan, they decided to apply again. The submarine cable under the new plan will be a 12,000 km long submarine cable that connects the Philippines and California across the Pacific Ocean, and is expected to start operation in 2022.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the project's parties agreed to leave the Chinese company, saying, 'The best way to complete cable construction and get the system up and running is to review the owner of the cable system.' I've reached it. '