Google to spend $1 billion to strengthen Pacific undersea internet infrastructure

Google LLC today Announce A $1 billion plan to build new undersea internet cables in the Pacific and expand existing network infrastructure in the region.

The project’s primary goal is to establish a new trans-Pacific network link called Proa. According to the search giant, it will connect Japan to the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The cable will be built by Tokyo-based telecommunications equipment manufacturer NEC Corporation.

Google will also work with the company to develop a second new internet link called Taihei. It is expected to connect Hawaii to Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture.

In Ibaraki Prefecture, the cable will connect to facilities originally built by Google to support Topaz, an early trans-Pacific internet link. Topaz opens in 2022 and stretches from Vancouver to Japan. It’s designed to handle the data traffic generated by Google Cloud and the search giant’s consumer services.

“Undersea cables can bring economic and productivity improvements wherever they land,” Brian Quigley, vice president of global network infrastructure at Google Cloud, wrote in a blog post today. “For example, in In Japan, research estimates that Google network infrastructure investments have generated more than $400 million in additional GDP growth over the past decade.”

Google’s newly announced connectivity plans will also upgrade existing undersea network infrastructure in the Pacific Ocean.

One of the highlights of this work is a cable called Tabua, which began construction late last year, according to the company. It was designed to connect the United States and Australia to French Polynesia. Google’s latest detailed network expansion plan will expand Tabua to Hawaii.

In addition, the search giant also plans to upgrade the TPU cable connecting Taiwan, the Philippines and the United States, and add a cable to the Northern Mariana Islands. It will also fund the construction of a regional network interconnection connecting the Northern Mariana Islands, Hawaii and Guam.

Quigley detailed: “This interconnector will connect trans-Pacific routes, increasing their reliability and reducing delays for users in the Pacific Islands and around the world.”

Google has also made significant investments in terrestrial network infrastructure.The company’s cloud data center is equipped with a titanium Use multiple custom chips to optimize hardware operation. One of the chips, called the Titanium offload processor, helps speed up computations that handle network traffic from cloud instances.

Rival Microsoft Corp. is also believed to be developing a custom processor for networking tasks. In February, The Information reported that the chip was designed to support the company’s artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Image: Google