Back in the nineties, Google started as an Internet search engine firm while Facebook used to be a simple social network for college kids in the early naughties. Today, these two companies are some of the largest tech giants the world has ever seen and are investing in pretty much everything from apps, cloud services, and communications solutions to self-driving cars, virtual reality technology, and Internet infrastructure. While usually fierce competitors with different outlooks on the future of technology, both companies have one thing in common – most of their products need reliable and speedy Internet connections. This is precisely why the two were willing to temporarily put their competitive spirits aside and decided to work together in order to bring high-speed Internet to as many parts of the world as possible.
More specifically, Google and Facebook have just announced that they’re collaborating on a huge project whose goal is to lay an 8,000-mile (12,800-kilometer) fiber-optic cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong that will offer the highest-capacity Internet route between North America and Asia ever created. No big deal, right? In any case, the said cable will boast a bandwidth of 120 terabits per second which is twice as much as what is currently available. Coincidentally, the currently fastest trans-pacific Internet cable FASTER has also been partially financed by Google.
While specifics of this partnership are yet to be revealed, it’s not hard to guess why two of the world’s largest Internet giants are interested in financing an enormous project such as this one. Namely, as their services are evolving in terms of features, both Google and Facebook need more bandwidth to ensure that their users are getting what they were promised so it’s basically a given that the companies will primarily finance this cable in order to use its capabilities. Just in case that they’re unable to use the maximum potential of this infrastructure, Facebook and Google will certainly have no issues with selling or leasing the remaining capacity to other companies. According to latest reports, works are expected to begin shortly and this submarine cable should already be operational by 2018.