Google building undersea cables

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 26 Feb 2008 at 08:44

Google has announced that it will build new undersea cables to boost international bandwidth.

The cable network will be called Unity, and run the 6,000 miles from Asia to the US under the Pacific Ocean.

It is expected that the connection will increase trans-Pacific bandwidth by 20% when it is completed in the first quarter of 2010.

Rather than one individual cable, Unity will consist of five separate fibre pairs. Each of these will be capable of carrying 960Gb/sec, providing a theoretical data transmission rate of 7.68Tb/sec.

Unity will be constructed by NEC and Tyco, and cost an estimated £150 million to complete.

This will be funded by a consortium consisting of Google and five telecoms companies; Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel.

"The Unity cable system allows the members of the consortium to provide the increased capacity needed as more applications and services migrate online, giving users faster and more reliable connectivity," says Unity spokesperson, Jayne Stowell.

Google has previously expressed an interest in investing in network infrastructure. Last year Google announced that it has set aside a budget of $4.6 billion to purchase a section of the US wireless sprectrum.