Facebook announced on Monday that two new undersea submarine cables were planned to link Singapore, Indonesia and North America in a project with Google and a regional telecommunications company to improve internet connectivity between regions.
“Named Echo and Bifrost, these will be the first two cables to traverse multiple new routes across the Java Sea, increasing total underwater transit capacity by about 70 percent,” said Kevin Salvadori, vice president of network investment at Facebook, said Reuters.
According to the executive, the cable will be the first to directly connect North America to some of Indonesia’s most important regions, increasing connectivity to the central and eastern provinces of the world’s fourth largest country.
While 73% of Indonesia’s 270 million people are online. The majority will have access to the network via cellular data by 2020. According to a study by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association, with less than 10% using broadband.
Google also working on a project called Equiano which contains undersea cables network that will connect Africa to Europe.
Titan Web Search has another unit, Loon, which makes high-altitude balloons providing 4G internet to rural communities. He recently announced expanding his plans in Mozambique.
Previously, Facebook had planned to broadcast the internet to remote areas using solar powered drones.
The company, named Aquila, completed the project in 2018 but reportedly working with Airbus to retest similar drones in Australia.
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Last year, Facebook announced it would deploy 3,000 km of Indonesian subways in twenty cities. In addition to a previous contract to develop public WiFi hotspots.
Facebook said earlier this month that it would stop efforts to link the California-Hong Kong cable. As “the US government continues to be concerned about direct communications between the US and Hong Kong.”
