Google and Facebook Join Forces to Directly Connect Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Undersea Cable

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Google and Facebook Join Forces to Directly Connect Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Undersea Cable

By CircleID Reporter
October 14, 2016, 4:54 pm PDT Views: 5,081 Add Comment

Facebook, Google, PLDC and TE SubCom to Co-Build the PLCN Submarine Cable Network: TE SubCom, leading provider of undersea communications technology and marine services, along with Facebook, Google, and PLDC (Pacific Light Data Communication Co. Ltd.), have announced that they will co-build the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), a 12,800 km transpacific submarine cable system that will provide the first direct undersea route between Hong Kong and Los Angeles, California (USA) with ultra-high capacity transmission.

— Brian Quigley, Director, Google Networking Infrastructure: The Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) will have an estimated cable capacity of 120 Tbps, making it the highest-capacity trans-Pacific route, a record currently held by another Google-backed cable system, FASTER. “In other words, PLCN will provide enough capacity for Hong Kong to have 80 million concurrent HD video conference calls with Los Angeles - an example of Google Cloud Platform having the largest network backbone of any public cloud provider.”

— This is the sixth submarine cable in which Google has an ownership stake - joining the ranks of the Unity, SJC, FASTER, MONET and Tannat projects. We anticipate that PLCN will be operational in 2018.

— PLCN is scheduled for commercial launch in summer of 2018.

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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