Work has begun on a new subsea cable system connecting Japan with Australia via Guam, and Google has joined as an investor and key consortium member. The Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) cable is a joint project consisting of RTI Connectivity (RTIC), AARNet, and Google.
The 9,500 km (6,000 miles) fiber optic cable is expected to be completed by late 2019, and will deliver a capacity of around 36 terabits per second (Tbps).
Google announced in January that it would be expanding its cloud infrastructure with five new cloud regions and three new subsea cables — the cables are to be commissioned in 2019, and will run from Chile to Los Angeles; the U.S. to Denmark and Ireland; and from Hong Kong to Guam.
These will eventually build upon Google’s existing cable systems that it has invested in across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, which include Unity, Faster, and PLCN — the latter of these is a joint project with Facebook, connecting Los Angeles with Hong Kong, and which is expected to be operational this year. The internet giant is investing in a number of other subsea cable systems, too, including Indigo which will connect parts of Asia with Australia.
Ultimately what Google wants is a far-reaching network of interconnected cables capable of transferring data between its servers and millions of users globally.