Facebook signs up as an investor on Asia-Pacific Gateway cable
News

Facebook signs up as an investor on Asia-Pacific Gateway cable

Social media giant Facebook has signed up as an investor on the Asia-Pacific Gateway project, according to a Malaysian stock exchange filing.

It would be the company’s first investment in a subsea cable system, and could mark a significant period of integration between telecoms operations and the lucrative OTT player.

The filing was made on the Malaysian stock exchange by Time dotcom, which has invested $45 million in the consortium, including the cost of building the cable landing station.

Facebook’s investment should give it some terabit capacity on the route, and follows a similar play by Google and its investment on the Unity cable across the Pacific.

As popularity on the site increases worldwide, it appears Facebook is starting to divulge information of its network investments, after keeping information of its global infrastructure capabilities largely private. In May, Facebook announced it had deployed TeliaSonera to build its European network and provide exchange points in multiple European cities.

Other investors in the APG consortium include China Mobile, China Telecom and NTT Communications. The cable offers a design capacity of 54Tbps and uses 40G waves, with the capability of 100G.

Gift this article