Google Spins Subsea Cable Web to Australia & Southeast Asia

Google is casting its subsea cable web wider, as the company is investing in the Japan-Guam-Australia Cable System, connecting Australia with Southeast Asia.

The new investment, combined with previous investments in the Indigo, HK-G and SJC subsea cables, forms a ring around key markets of Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) says. Other Asia-Pacific cable systems, named Unity, Faster and PCN, connect the US with Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Michael Francois, global network infrastructure for Google, says in a blog announcing the cable posted late Tuesday.

The 6,000-mile JGA cable system will provide two fiber pairs connecting Japan to Guam and two others connecting Guam to Sydney. NEC and Alcatalel Submarine Networks are building JGA. The JGA-South cables are being developed by a consortium of AARnet, Google and RTI-C. The JGA-North segment is a private cable being developed by RTI-C. Together, the segments will stretch 9,500km (or nearly 6,000 miles).

Figure 1: Google's planned undersea cable will link Australia and Southeast Asia. Click here for bigger image. Source: Google.

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Google launched three submarine cables in January: Curie, a private cable between Chile and Los Angeles; Havfrue, a consortium cable connecting the US to Denmark and Ireland; and the Hong Kong-Guam Cable System (HK-G), a consortium cable interconnecting major subsea communications hubs in Asia. (See Google Launches 3 Submarine Cables.)

Google says its global network makes it a better platform for enterprise customers, giving cloud providers the connectivity, security and reliability they need to run their business on the cloud.

"Whether we're delivering directions to Maps users, videos to YouTube viewers, or [Google Cloud Platform] services to businesses, we know a fast and reliable infrastructure makes all the difference," Francois says. "That's why we continue to invest in strategic routes, many of which require crossing oceans."

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— Mitch Wagner Editor, Enterprise Cloud, Light Reading