Google funds massive undersea cable

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 27th February 2008
Comments (18) Stumble
The new fibre will allow for up to 960Gb/s per pair for an initial speed of 4.8Tb/s - which is nice.

The new fibre will allow for up to 960Gb/s per pair for an initial speed of 4.8Tb/s - which is nice.

If satellite links aren't your cup of tea, Google's got your back: everyone's favourite ad-broker has joined a consortium planning to build a new submarine fibre-optic cable connecting Japan to the west cost of the United States of America.

The cable – to be known as 'Unity' – will be approximately 6,200 miles long and will cost around $300 million. It's money well spent, however: the five-pair cable will be capable of transferring data at a rate of 4.8Tb/s – yes, that's 4.8 terabits per second. To use a slightly tired example, that's the equivalent of just over sixty double-layer DVD-9s every single second.

As if that wasn't enough, the cable will actually support up to eight pairs, with the three other pairs being left 'dark' until damage or an increase in utilisation prompts their requirement.

The companies involved in the Unity project include Google – for obvious reasons – along with telecos Sing Tel and Bharti Airtel and deep-sea cable experts Pacnet. The six-strong fellowship is completed with NEC and Tyco Telecommunications who will be doing the actual building of the technology.

As we move inexorably towards Web 2.0 – whether we want it or not – bandwidth requirements are set to skyrocket, and no-one is due to feel the strain as much as Google. Without access to cheap bandwidth in massive quantities the Mountain View firm would be unable to continue to grow in the way they have enjoyed previously. They're not stupid: a share of a $300 million undersea cable now will save them a fortune in coming years.

Fancy getting a terminal on the end of one of the 960Gb/s circuits, or are you just jealous that Japan gets the fun toys again? Let us know over in the forums.
Asus EeePC Range
Quote DougEdey 27th February 2008, 09:04
Google on a spending spree or something? First WINE, now this? What's going to be next "Google funds ultimate Laptop"
Quote noobarino 27th February 2008, 09:11
"Google buys Microsoft"
Quote victorres2 27th February 2008, 09:12
Good investments, lets just hope they get insurance on underwater earthquakes since they are starting up again, well at least here in southern california.
Quote Clocked 27th February 2008, 09:29
/me wants 4.8tb/s in my home...
Quote adamc 27th February 2008, 09:46
when is the UK going to be improving its internet infrastructure? :(
Quote Delphium 27th February 2008, 10:02
Quote:
Originally Posted by adamc
when is the UK going to be improving its internet infrastructure? :(

^^^ :(

Following recent trends.... they wont, they will just cap and monitor us all.

All your packets are belong to (NOT us!).
Quote badders 27th February 2008, 10:44
Yay, 4.8Tb for Japan, 512Kb for me.

Whoop-de-bleedin'-doo.
Quote p3n 27th February 2008, 10:45
jeez atleast use a picture of the novelty fibre optic toys :p

ps all these rants are a tad silly, this is the internets underlying structure not your last mile ISP and it also involves two continents that couldn't be much further away!
Quote DXR_13KE 27th February 2008, 11:41
i consider it cheap.... for the amount of money google owns....
Quote Bauul 27th February 2008, 12:14
All the fiber optics in the world won't help you if the last mile is ancient copper wiring, and improving THAT little problem BT estimates would cost them billions and billions and billions...
Quote proxess 27th February 2008, 13:53
It would make a big difference for me if we had some extra sub-aquatic fibre optic cables, seeing that my ISP infrastructure is actually rather good from what I've seen. Only problem are the 'Cache Servers' as they call them (or in truth, package sniffers).
Quote Firehed 27th February 2008, 14:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clocked
/me wants 4.8tb/s in my home...

Why? It's not like any website allows anywhere near that much bandwidth to a single connection, let alone having hard drives that could utilize a thousandth of that speed.
Quote scarrmrcc 27th February 2008, 14:07
next up:
google buys yahoo
Quote naokaji 27th February 2008, 14:13
if google really wants to spend money, I could give them my paypal address...


j/k

good to see that they invest into infrastructure for the internet, just look at the ever increasing filesizes... we will need it.
Quote Clocked 27th February 2008, 14:19
Quote:
Originally Posted by Firehed
Why? It's not like any website allows anywhere near that much bandwidth to a single connection, let alone having hard drives that could utilize a thousandth of that speed.

but i could boast about it being too fast for my hardware though...
Quote Cheapskate 27th February 2008, 18:34
Attention Google!
I am willing to design and build a fancy plexiglas internet for the sum of only $100 million dollars. Please PM me here at BT.
Quote Ghys 27th February 2008, 20:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Firehed
Why? It's not like any website allows anywhere near that much bandwidth to a single connection, let alone having hard drives that could utilize a thousandth of that speed.

it's all about the e-pen you know ;)

I'm actually glad they're going to do this. The web might be worldwide in theory, but we never get to socialise (err, socialise online) with anyone from Asia. It's like a 'completely independant internet'
Quote The_Beast 27th February 2008, 22:23
that sounds pretty sweet

it's only $300 million
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