Google and Facebook partner on PLCN submarine cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong

Google said today that it’s working with Facebook and China Soft Power Technology Holdings subsidiary Pacific Light Data Communication to construct a trans-Pacific undersea cable. The Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) will transmit 120 terabits of data per second between Los Angeles and Hong Kong — a span of almost 8,000 miles.

The cable should be working by 2018, Google submarine networking infrastructure director Brian Quigley wrote in a blog post.

This isn’t a first for Google, or for Facebook. Google has already invested considerable sums of money into this type of infrastructure. Other cables Google has collaborated on include the Faster, as well as Unity, SJC, Monet, and Tannat, Quigley wrote.

Above: A map showing the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) and Google Cloud Platform network infrastructure.

Image Credit: Google

The infrastructure will decease latency in certain cases for the the G Suite of Google apps and the Google Cloud Platform, which provides public cloud compute and storage infrastructure for independent developers and companies, including Snapchat and Spotify.

Public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently put up money to support a submarine cable running between Hawaii and Australia, according to Data Center Knowledge. Microsoft has also invested in undersea cables in support of its cloud services. Most recently, it partnered with Facebook on the Marea cable.