According to Sunil Tagare, founder and CEO of OpenCables, Google is building the new trans-Pacific system due to the complicated regulatory conditions in place between Asia and the US.
As Capacity reported last month, Google and Facebook through, its subsidiaries GU Holdings and Edge Cable Holdings USA, are seeking permission to activate the US and the Philippines and Taiwan sections of the PLCN cable, leaving the sections connecting to Hong Kong dark.
The news follows a period of uncertainty for the cable which was due to go live this quarter because of concerns from US lawmakers about security and ties to Chinese vendor Huawei that is banned in the US.
As a result, PLCN has been in a somewhat suspended state until Team Telecom, the US national security unit tasked with protecting America’s telecommunications systems, decides on whether data on the practically completed system, can start to be transmitted.
Tagare asserts that in turn Google fashion it will be a private cable exclusively for its own use.
Capacity contacted Google’s press office and has yet to receive a response.
