Google has become a major backer of the Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) Cable System, which has just commenced construction, in a move aimed at ramping up its cloud services data channels in the local region.
The 9,500-kilometer undersea fiber-optic cable system is a new addition to Google’s existing submarine network in the region, which include the HK-G and SJC subsea cables. Together, all three cable links will effectively form a ring between the key markets of Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.
A consortium including RTI Connectivity, AARNet and Google, together with Nokia’s Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and NEC Corporation are behind the new JGA cable
The new cable system is planned to deliver a design capacity of more than 36 terabits per second (Tbps) and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019.
“Our investment in these cables builds on our other APAC cable systems, namely Unity, Faster and PLCN, interconnecting the United States with Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Google said in a blog post on 3 April.
“Taken together, these cable investments provide improved connectivity to GCP’s [Google Cloud Platform’s] five cloud regions across Asia and Australia (with more on the way), so that companies using GCP can serve their customers no matter where they are,” the company said.
The newest leg of Google’s local subsea cable network will have two fiber pairs connecting Japan to Guam, and two fiber pairs connecting Guam to Sydney.
“This provides deeply scalable capacity to both our users and Google Cloud Platform customers,” Google said.
“Whether we’re delivering directions to Maps users, videos to YouTube viewers, or GCP services to businesses, we know a fast and reliable infrastructure makes all the difference. That’s why we continue to invest in strategic routes, many of which require crossing oceans,” it said.
