Google Planning New Undersea Cable Across Pacific?

tregetour writes "Google is planning a multi-terabit undersea communications cable across the Pacific Ocean for launch in 2009, Communications Day reports: 'Google would not strictly confirm or deny the existence of the Unity plan today, with spokesman Barry Schnitt telling our North American correspondent Patrick Neighly that "Additional infrastructure for the Internet is good for users and there are a number of proposals to add a Pacific submarine cable. We're not commenting on any of these plans." However, Communications Day understands that Unity would see Google join with other carriers to build a new multi-terabit cable. Google would get access to a fibre pair at build cost handing it a tremendous cost advantage over rivals such as MSN and Yahoo, and also potentially enabling it to peer with Asia ISPs behind their international gateways — considerably improving the affordability of Internet services across Asia Pacific.'"

Do no evil ....

[B5_geek]

...And allowing it to (dis)allow oppressive governments to continue to block/monitor Internet access.

This may have been a brilliant move on Googles' part. Fully cooperate with the Chinese governments' "Great Firewall" until they could put themselves in a position to undermine that authority.

Great?

[moehoward]

I think it is great if it is true. I like the redundancy plan. But, since they don't specify the route, I am very skeptical. On the other hand, who am I to talk. I have never put a job opening on Monster looking for a "submarine cable negotiator." That is frickin' hilarious.

Me? I would go up through Alaska, through Russia via the Bering Sea. Cap'n Sig would do most of the work for me on the Northwestern. I would avoid doing a Portland-to-Tokyo route because of the ring-o-fire thingy.

I fell in to a burning ring of fire, I went down,down,down and the flames went higher. And my mod went lower.

Africa

[pilsner.urquell]

What about Africa? This is a continent that needs Internet access more than any other and a new undersea cable is embroiled in bitter political animosity [wordpress.com] IMHO Google could generate a lot of good will for itself focusing in the area that needs the most attention.

Re:Great?

[Dachannien]

Me? I would go up through Alaska, through Russia via the Bering Sea. Cap'n Sig would do most of the work for me on the Northwestern. I would avoid doing a Portland-to-Tokyo route because of the ring-o-fire thingy.

It's amusing that you would mention that, because the first transatlantic telegraph cable (well... the first project - there were a few abortive attempts as well as some attempts that stopped working soon after completion) was in direct competition with a "do it the long way" overland route via Russia that was being built by Western Union. The first long-lasting undersea cable eventually finished the race first in 1866, and the Western Union attempt was abandoned the next year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union_Telegraph_Expedition [wikipedia.org]

Re:What about the cost of US internet?

[thatskinnyguy]

It's still a matter of corporate intervention, not government meddling and regulations.

There. Fixed it!

Re:Intercept light without interruption

[AHuxley]

In the US and its helper countries, they just get rack space where needed.
So the best way is to get as much of the worlds data moving via NSA friendly countries.
For everything else, there's the USS Jimmy Carter to bend the fiber.

Google is the NWO

[jihadist]

The New World Order will unite all the world, breed us into a Grey Race, destroy our culture so we must get our values from television and malls, and then will make us all slaves to even more boring corporate jobs, but they'll be "happy" in the Apple/Google way.

I almost want Microsoft to win, because at least they've got part of the fascist aesthetic down. This Nanny Corporate State NWO bullshit is just depressingly silly.

Re:Sounds good

[SQL Error]

Bandwidth costs have always been higher here, and it's not all to do with a lack of local competition, although that used to be a credible story back when Telstra was charging twenty cents a megabyte for permanent dial-up connectivity.

In 1997, Telstra were charging 19.5c per MB. In 2007:

Additional usage charged at $0.15/MB, apart from members on the BigPond Liberty plans.

Telstra are a bunch of thieves.

Re:What about the cost of US internet?

[ScrewMaster]

This situation will never, ever happen in the U.S., even if politicians try to wave magic Government-Issued wands.

Yes and no.

The Feds, over the past decade, did wave such a magic card at the Telcos and the billions of dollars that were inside that card that were supposed to be used for such a buildout just vanished. Gone. Never to be seen again. "Information superhighway" my ass.

So the situation could obtain in the U.S. but only if we remove a major stumbling block: the major ISP themselves. Believe me, the investment capital would be available if the people willing to put up the money knew that they would receive a return on that investment. Interestingly, Google is investing heavily in infrastructure, but they're not giving it to the incumbents. They know better than anyone that it would be a waste of money.

Re:why is this better than satellite upload/downlo

[rs79]

If any stupid net.neutrality laws get passed it gives the goog bargining power. "oh hello data pipe operator. Want to peer with us? We have Asia. We'll trade you for unfettered access to the americas"

fibre is currency in this century.

Wikipedia article - Submarine Communications Cable

[fejikso]

I was prompted me to look at the wikipedia and found this interesting article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_communications_cable [wikipedia.org]

I particularly found very interesting the map with all the undersea cables in the world. Pretty cool.

Re:Why can't the USA get decent Internet

[Zymergy]

As an Oklahoma resident, feel lucky if you even get DSL. Until Real Competition occurs, there will be no decent high-speed Internet in most areas outside medium cities. If a small town/rural Oklahoma region has even slow DSL, it is probably because the Law States they must have it order to be the telco monopoly in that area, etc... Though the phone company may claim service is available in my RURAL area, bridge-taps galore and 1970's equipment/wiring make this a non-reality. So.... I got a HAM Radio license, Bought 2 towers and 2 TR-6000 radios (http://www.tranzeo.com/products/radios/TR-6000-Series) with 2 high-gain directional dish antennas and 2 bi-directional amplifiers. Thanks to a strategically purchased rental property IN TOWN ON A HILL, I bridge the connection from its DSL to my home. Normally, the Amps are extreme overkill, but I live in the middle of the Greenbelt of Oklahoma (think dense 30-40ft. Oak Trees) and the Fresnel Zones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone) are a real bitch with tree leaves. Works like a champ. Why not Satellite, AWFUL Latency and VERY HIGH Prices!

Re:Wikipedia article - Submarine Communications Ca

[c_forq]

Something is fishy about that map. On the West side there are 5 lines headed towards Asia, but on the Asian side there are only 2 lines coming in from the East. Do we have 3 cables only going to the mid-pacific? Also there is no explanation for the blue lines and the dotted line, what do these signify?

Re:Wikipedia article - Submarine Communications Ca

[soliptic]

Don't miss this:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html [wired.com]

It was posted (here I think) on a previous related story, it's very long, and I would not have expected to find the subject interesting, but the article makes it fascinating and very readable.

Re:evesdropping requirements

[sentientbeing]

Theres no need to damage the fibre to tap it. Just create a small tight bend and allow some of the light to leak out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DvaubDDbss [youtube.com]

Re:Google's Australian datacenter?

[BoiseAlf]

Depends where you are. When I resolve www.google.com, www.google.co.uk, and www.google.co.jp I get one of three IPs for them all: Name: www.l.google.com Address: 64.233.167.104 Name: www.l.google.com Address: 64.233.167.147 Name: www.l.google.com Address: 64.233.167.99 These are all in the Chicago area. My ISP is an upstream provider of theirs - I jump right from my ISP's network to Google. I suspect they resolve DNS based on the requestor's IP and give an IP geographically close - or maybe they factor in BGP hops...

Re:They are buying one fiber pair

[thogard]

The new long haul stuff means you don't need under sea repeaters at all if you stick to the Pacific rim and avoid Hawaii. Under sea fiber armored fiber runs about $7/m but the repeaters run about $1 million each which is why there tends to be only one or two pair used. When you can reduce the undersea infrastructure costs from about $2 billion the old way to $200m using on land repeaters, the ROI make sense for many major data users.