In a move designed to ramp up its cloud capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Google (GOOG) announced a partnership with Facebook Inc. (FB), Chinese company Pacific Light Data Communication, and New Jersey-based undersea cable specialist TE Subcom to build the first ultra-high capacity direct submarine cable system between Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

According to a blogpost on Google's website, the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) will be the highest capacity trans-Pacific route with 12,800 km of fiber and an estimated cable capacity of 120 terabits per second (or, the capacity to hold 80 concurrent video calls simultaneously).

The previous record for cable capacity between the United States and Asia was held by another Google submarine cable called FASTER, which had an estimated cable capacity of 60 terabits per second, and runs between Oregon and Japan. According to Google, the new cable will reduce delays and offer greater security and bandwidth to Google users in the Asia Pacific region.

This is Facebook’s second investment in building an undersea cable this year. In May, the Menlo Park-based company announced a joint venture with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) to lay a cable from Virginia Beach on the East Coast to Bilbao in Spain. The Marea cable will become functional in 2017 and have a capacity of 160 terabits per second. (See also: Facebook, Microsoft To Build Undersea Cable)

Undersea cables provide technology companies with a dedicated and exclusive route (as opposed to using telecom cables that carry voice and data) to channel their services to customers.

For example, dedicated undersea cables will ensure that Facebook, which has seen an explosion of video content in recent times, is able to serve up its services in other regions without latency.

Similarly, Google has touted the cable’s capacity in relation to its Google cloud platform, claiming that it has the largest network backbone of any cloud provider. The company also pointed its blog readers to new investments in the APAC region.

Revenue from the region is expected to equal approximately $11 billion by 2020, almost double of revenue figures expected to be generated this year.

(See also: Google Expands Cloud And IaaS/PaaS Platforms)