Google and Facebook scrap submarine internet cable with Hong Kong

Google and Facebook have put a proposal to install a submarine internet cable with a connection in Hong Kong on hold for the time being. Instead, there are plans to lay a cable connecting to Taiwan and the Philippines.

Bloomberg news agency reports this on the basis of documentation submitted to the American telecom watchdog FCC. Google and Facebook would have scrapped the plans for the internet cable, which was to connect the United States to Hong Kong, among other things, due to the mounting tensions with China. The US government fears that China could eavesdrop on the connections and therefore wanted to block the project.

Instead, the two companies have submitted a new proposal, with the intention of laying the submarine Internet cable between the United States, Taiwan and the Philippines. No approval has been given yet, but since the proposal has been modified based on US government requirements, it seems likely that it will come.

It concerns the Pacific Light Cable Network, for which Facebook and Google already submitted a proposal in 2017. It is still unclear when construction will start.