Facebook and Google collaborate in construction of Pacific internet cable

Internet giants Facebook and Google are teaming up to work on an 8,000 mile long cable connection between Los Angeles and Hong Kong in an effort to combat their blocking in mainland China.

Google's search engine has effectively been shut down in China since 2010, and Facebook has not been available to consumers since 2009, although both still maintain business-facing operations there.

The cable would be the longest and fastest one in existence, going across the Pacific Ocean.

The companies deal with huge amounts of data, with 1.7bn Facebook users posting videos, photos and files, while Google's servers deal with billions of requests per day.

The Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) will be launched in summer 2018, and the estimated speed will be around 120 terabits per second

"PLCN will bring lower latency, more security and greater bandwidth to Google users in the APAC region," said Google's Brian Quigley.

Strict censorship laws in China have curtailed both companies' influence there, as they look to enhance their cloud computing capabilities.

The likes of Microsoft and Amazon are also competing in the same arena, in an effort to speed up their synchronisation of information between servers.

The newest internet cable will be constructed in conjunction with the Hong Kong-based Pacific Light Data Communication.