Google Spins Subsea Cable Web to Australia & Southeast AsiaGoogle 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.