Facebook's new hookup: A pair of submarine cables to link North America, Indonesia, Singapore

Facebook has announced that it will build two new subsea cables to connect North America with Indonesia and Singapore. The two cables, named Echo and Bifrost, will be the first transpacific cables through the Java Sea. “While these projects are still subject to regulatory approvals, when completed, these cables will deliver …

[Anonymous Coward]

Hong Kong is China's, completely, 26 years ahead of schedule. 1997 agreement said China would guarantee status quo for 50 years. They couldn't wait. They didn't have to. Will Boris force the Chinese government to honor the agreement?

Oh, yeah, Anschluss... hasn't even been 100 years and we've forgotten all those lessons learnt.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you mean the latest evolution of the aftermath of the way Britain annexed Hong Kong after honourably flooding an entire country with opium?

The thing about history is that is really shouldn't be selective.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hong-kong-ceded-to-the-british

[Jim Mitchell]

A past wrong doesn't make the a wrong any less wrong.

[Jim Mitchell]

Arrgh, why can't I proffread?

[Nightkiller]

People like you will soon be demanding reparations for Abel's murder.

[RegGuy1]

Abel was murdered?

Was he murdered? It say's on Niels Henrik Abel's wiki page he got ill and died. It mentions Abelian but not murder.

[J.G.Harston]

China is determined that Hong Kong be Just Another Chinese City, and if that means killing their golden goose, then so be it.

[Dr Scrum Master]

With the rise of other coastal Chinese cities, Hong Kong is not quite so indispensable as it once was.

[Anonymous Coward]

regulation

"During the Trump administration, the Department of Justice made recommendations to the US Federal Communications Commission against linking the US to Hong Kong based on national security concerns, thus killing off Facebook’s other attempts to install the subsea cables."

This is understood, but then, why allowing Zuck to lay his cables ? He will for sure peer his private network with the rest of the net, no ?

What will happen to security then ? The same as if the US state had done it ...

I don't get the logic of this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: regulation

I'm not understanding the concerns from the first part. For discussion, let's assume: China controls Hong Kong and China is bad. Wouldn't it still be preferable to have a direct link versus a path that has to relay through China?

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: regulation

State secrets can only be exfiltrated over a direct link, don'cha know.

I expect the DoJ's opinion to the FCC was based entirely on the Administration's dislike of Facebook, and in general of people more successful than Ol' Orange.

[IGotOut]

Stopping of in Guam.

I wonder why?

https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/new-base-expected-to-host-thousands-of-marines-begins-to-take-shape-on-guam-1.622106

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Stopping of in Guam.

Hey, Guam is important to the US. At least to those of us who know it's a US territory.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it building a cable or laying them?

Just asking as a foreigner trying to understand the use of language here..

[Pennsyjohn]

Construction

You are right, it is laying a cable, but it is ,also, building the on-shore buildings, etc to make the thing work. Otherwise, some very pricey glass on the ocean floor. What would environmentalists say ?

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

A pedant would say it's "laying". But we could infer what was meant (it seemed unlikely they were manufacturing the cable.)

I guess it's by analogy with "building a pipeline". But pipelines are assembled from short lengths of pipe so the "line" is built, whereas a single submarine cable can be a couple of thousand kilometres long and will be unspooled and "laid" (actually buried) as a single piece. [SOURCE]

[NeilPost]

Insane Cabling

Wondering if the 3,000 km of Fibre layed in Bali etc is just more cabling tied to the insane power and phone bundles hanging from poles that seems standard in most Asian countries. Quite how the fix anything is beyond me.

[Rattlerjake]

So if there are so many satellites, why does anyone need cables connecting across the ocean? Further proof that satellites don't exist!