Faster, Lower-Latency Overseas Connections Coming to LA

The explosion of cloud computing, streaming video, and other high-bandwidth data services has put more pressure on intercontinental data capacity than ever before. That’s triggered a boom in undersea data cable construction, much of it set to bring new trans-pacific capacity to the Los Angeles area within the next two years.

And that, in turn, puts customers of T5 Data Centers’ T5@LA facility in an ideal position to take advantage of the increased capacity and lower latency that new cables will bring.

Here’s a quick rundown of four undersea cables slated to land in the LA area by the end of 2020.

Curie Cable

From Google comes the first privately built undersea data cable that isn’t funded by a major telecommunications company. The cable is named for Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist Marie Currie. It will run more than 6,000 miles from El Segundo, in the Los Angeles area, to Valparaiso, Chile. Google says it will be the first new subsea cable to land in Chile in almost two decades, will represent the biggest data pipe going into Chile when completed in 2019, and will serve users throughout Latin America.

PLCN Cable

At 144 Tbps, the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) cable will be the highest-capacity cable crossing the Pacific when it opens in 2019, according to Pacific Light Data Communications, one of the cable’s owners. Google, Facebook, and TE SubCom also have stakes in the venture. The cable will span nearly 8,000 miles as the first direct data link between Hong Kong and the U.S. (landing in El Segundo).

Jupiter Cable

Coming in 2020, the Jupiter cable will connect Hermosa Beach, in the Los Angeles area, with two cable landing stations in Japan and one in the Philippines. NTT Communications, SoftBank, Facebook, and Amazon are among the companies with an ownership stake in the cable. The cable will span 8,700 miles and support an initial capacity of 60 Tbps, with more to come to as demand increases.

Hong Kong-Americas

The PLCN cable won’t remain the only direct shot between Hong Kong and the U.S. for long. The Hong Kong-Americas cable will join it in 2020. Backed by funders including China Telecom, China Unicom, Facebook, and Tata Communications, the 8,000-mile cable will link Chung Hom Kok in Hong Kong with Hermosa Beach to deliver more than 80 Tbps of connectivity.

It all adds up to a lot more overseas capacity and lower latency for data coming to Los Angeles in the next couple of years. The PLCN cable alone, for example, will deliver data to and from Hong Kong 10 ms faster than any current link. It’s all in the service of keeping up with rapidly growing global demand for more and better network experiences. For data center customers near the landing points of undersea cables, the increased capacity and lower latency will translate into better service. The improvements will boost cloud computing platforms and applications, content streaming, entertainment services, online gaming, and more.

At T5 Data Centers, we are equipped to deliver with our 180,000-square-foot T5@Los Angeles facility, strategically located in El Segundo, just five miles from Hermosa Beach. The multi-tenant Enterprise data center provides a secure, fiber rich environment with its own, dedicated onsite power substation to support IT business functions with 100% uptime.

With the runway to expand as more overseas capacity comes to LA, we’re well-positioned to serve our customers now and into the future. Learn more about T5@LA.