
Google, Facebook to Invest in U.S.-China Data Link - jstreebin
http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-facebook-to-invest-in-u-s-china-data-link-1476302632
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boulos
I think our blogpost [0] is more interesting than this wrapper in this case,
at least to the HN crowd as it explicitly calls out capacity (120 Tbps) and
provides more context.

Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

[0] [https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/new-undersea-
ca...](https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/new-undersea-cable-
expands-capacity-for-Google-APAC-customers-and-users.html)

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smaili
_Pacific Light Data is a newcomer to the industry with no previous experience
building networks._

Must've been a hell of a pitch.

~~~
virtuallynathan
The CEO is an Ex-telecoms guy, and you don't actually have to know how to do
much. Most of the legwork is done by the submarine cable systems company you
hire, in this case TE Subcom. Mostly it's just a funding entity.

Also, this cable was announced about a year ago: Nov 20 2015
([https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/...](https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2015/11/20/cable-
compendium-a-guide-to-the-weeks-submarine-and-terrestrial-developments/)) :

Newly established Hong Kong-based company Pacific Light Data Communication
(PLDC) – a subsidiary of investment fund China Soft Power Technology Holding
Limited (CSPTHL) – has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
TE SubCom for the construction of a new submarine cable system, dubbed Pacific
Light Cable Network (PLCN), which will directly connect Hong Kong with the US.

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Hondor
Disappointing that it's only HK, not mainland China. Nobody's going to notice
the difference. From the headline, it sounded like FB and Google we getting
some kind of toe in the door, but their cable is going to be useless to the
Chinese who have their international data throttled for political reasons, not
because of a lack of cables.

~~~
mtgx
If the Chinese didn't try to slow down outside Internet traffic coming in
massively in order to censor and spy on it, the speeds would likely become
much better.

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virtuabhi
In addition to censorship and spying, slowing down international speeds also
provides competitive advantage to domestic companies.

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api
I've been told that this is the primary purpose of the whole thing. It's a
back door protectionist tax on foreign Internet services done in such a way as
to not trigger taxation provisions in trade deals.

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supergirl
Who told you?

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api
Someone who once specialized in breaking the GFW for NGOs and activist groups,
and who worked a lot in China.

Censorship is still a motive, just not the only one and maybe not even the
primary one. The GFW is just too porous to be an effective censor, but it does
prevent foreign Internet based SaaS from competing in China. It means to
compete in China you must be in China where your IP can be easily appropriated
since the Chinese state must also have root on your box (or the cloud host).

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bogomipz
I find this interesting because as a consortium cable theres not that many
players involved and one of them - FB is blocked in China(with the exception
of Hong Kong.)

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kristianov
Facebook is also not blocked in Taiwan.

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Hondor
Taiwan doesn't count as China. It's like saying South Korea is part of North
Korea.

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ryao
The peering links between the US and China, Korea, Japan, etcetera are
congested. Hopefully, this will help reduce some of that congestion.

~~~
virtuallynathan
What makes you say that? "The Peering Links" is way to generic to be useful -
hundreds of companies and networks operate "peering" (or transit, or
transport) links between the US and Asia. To name a few: Google, Facebook,
Microsoft, Cogent, Level3, NTT, HE.net, China Telecom/Unicom/Mobile, KDDI,
Tata, Verizon, Korea Telecom, PCCW, LG, SingTel, Telstra, AT&T, CenturyLink,
Bharti Airtel, and Softbank.

Regardless, that is more or less independent of this cable, which will be used
for bulk data transfer by 2 private companies.

~~~
jlgaddis
> _... this cable, which will be used for bulk data transfer by 2 private
> companies._

... and bulk collection by the NSA too, I'm sure. Hopefully Google is still
encrypting their internal traffic. Facebook probably doesn't care.

