Google Plans Fiber-Optic Network To Connect Via Saudi Arabia and Israel for First Time (wsj.com) 29
Google is laying the groundwork for a fiber-optic network that for the first time will connect through historical enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel while opening a new corridor for global internet traffic, according to people familiar with the plans. From a report: The project linking India to Europe is Google's latest globe-crossing internet construction effort. The Alphabet subsidiary is vying with Facebook to build more network capacity to support its surging user demand for videos, search results and other products. Expanded connectivity between Europe and India would also help Google roll out data centers globally and catch up to rivals Microsoft and Amazon.com in the business of on-demand cloud-computing. Google, which names most of its internet cables after scientists, has dubbed the new route Blue Raman after Indian physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. A submarine cable project the length of Blue Raman -- at more than 5,000 miles -- would cost typically up to $400 million, according to Dubai-based telecommunications firm Salience Consulting.
Google is expected to turn to telecom-company partners to help fund the project, including Oman Telecommunications and Telecom Italia, which are helping finance the route, according to those with knowledge of the project. Those partners and others will help fund the cable's construction while sharing its fiber-optic infrastructure. Those familiar with Google's Blue Raman project cautioned that it still might not materialize. Because it crosses multiple borders, the project will require agreements with several regulators, and one setback could force Google to redesign the route. For example, Google's consortium still lacks the go-ahead it needs from Saudi government authorities to connect the Blue Raman project, some of these people said.
Google is expected to turn to telecom-company partners to help fund the project, including Oman Telecommunications and Telecom Italia, which are helping finance the route, according to those with knowledge of the project. Those partners and others will help fund the cable's construction while sharing its fiber-optic infrastructure. Those familiar with Google's Blue Raman project cautioned that it still might not materialize. Because it crosses multiple borders, the project will require agreements with several regulators, and one setback could force Google to redesign the route. For example, Google's consortium still lacks the go-ahead it needs from Saudi government authorities to connect the Blue Raman project, some of these people said.
Thank Trump (Score:5, Insightful)
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Bullshit. The only reason S.Arabia is getting all lovey with Israel is because Iran is scaring the shit out of them. They've been meeting Israel under the covers (as have the other Gulf Arab states) for years. All that happened was the Arab States figured it would be good to allow the alleged president to claim some sort of success. And if it all goes south, they'll claim the U.S. forced them into it. And it didn't hurt that the Palestinians were way past their sell-by date and playing footsie with those na
Don't humor mentally ill people (Score:2)
because Iran is scaring the shit out of them
Iran has no territorial aspirations affecting Saudi Arabia. And vice versa. This is totally the product of which descendant of the prophet of some invisible sky god one happens to support. Governments of both countries need to tell their respective whack jobs to STFU. Play an annual ping pong tournament if that's what it takes to determine who is correct. After all, Allah will guide the paddle of the truly righteous just as he would their missiles.
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Governments of both countries need to tell their respective whack jobs to STFU.
Are you seriously posting while being that clueless? The government of Iran is RUN by those whack jobs that are looking to install a "caliphate". You side step that issue by talking about territorial ambitions. These whack jobs don't care what lines you draw on a map, as long as they are the ones that get to tell Muslims what it is to be Muslim, on pain of death. You make a distinction without a difference.
And if President Trump did not step in the give backing to Israel and oppose the terrorist in Ir
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I think you're pretty clueless. Iran is a Shiite country, it doesn't believe in "caliphates". That's a Sunni concept. If you don't understand basic concepts, perhaps you shouldn't comment.
Re: Don't humor mentally ill people (Score:1)
Iran has territorial aspirations for the entire Middle East. They are the one funding the terrorists in the area from PLA to Al Qaeda and are the ones that invaded their neighbors to establish a Muslim caliphate.
The fact that the US has indicated to stand behind Israel and stop giving in to Iran and the Palestinian occupation of Israel and willing to back it up with a drone up the ass of Khalemeini and consorts (the killing of Al Qaedaâ(TM)s second in command and strikes on sites in Afghanistan etc in
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Iran funding al Qaida? That's a laugh. They are on opposite sides of the Sunni-Shia divide and therefore mortal enemies. When we went in to Afghaniastan, Iran was more than happy to stand down and watch us try to mop up al Qaida and the Taliban.
Iran isn't scaring the shit out of anyone right now. They are slowly being surrounded by client states of Turkey (the only Islamic country with a remote chance of restoring a caliphate), Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia is a has-been in the region and not wo
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Is that why they were harboring the second in command for Al Qaeda - he got killed in Iran who was harboring them.
It is a myth that the Shiite Iranian regime and Sunni al-Qaeda are incapable of collusion. There is a wealth of evidence, stretching back to the early 1990s, showing that the two have repeatedly cooperated. The 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings are a good example. The 9/11 Commission found Iran and its chief terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, gave al-Qaeda the “tactical expertise” necessary for th
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he got killed in Iran who was harboring them
According to Mossad. He's still on the FBI's wanted list for terrorism. You really have to be careful about your sources.
Re: Don't humor mentally ill people (Score:4, Informative)
Iran and Al Qaeda are mortal enemies.
Iran backs anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, especially in Herat Province.
Iran backed the Shia militias that destroyed ISIS.
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For example here is evidence to the contrary - it appears Iran and Al-Qaeda are working together: https://www.brookings.edu/arti... [brookings.edu]
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This is correct. And it was Obama's policy towards Iran that scared the shit out of S. Arabia and Israel. He basically cut them loose and told them to fend for themselves. That said, S. Arabia has already had a good "secret" relationship with Israel for quite awhile. Already a few years ago, there were sitcoms in S. Arabia defending Israel and not Palestine, showing a huge shift in thought (to get past censors), I suppose to get a better consensus over what its people were thinking.
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Iran is scaring the shit out of them.
But Trump deserves most of the credit for that. His completely incompetent handling of the Iran nuclear deal meant that Iran reaped much of the financial benefits with no constraints on resuming enrichment.
Are they going to (Score:2)
Dig a trench across the desert?
Wouldn't it be vulnerable to sabotage by other Arabs?
Shout, Free Occupied Palestine! (Score:3, Interesting)
Way to bury the lede! (Score:2)
"Google wants a direct high-speed fiber optic link between these historic event countries. By the way, one of them hasn't agreed yet."
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*enemy countries.
Gboard is terrible. It got the right word at first, and then changed it later. I should not have to proof-read its output three times.
Hate on the Orange Bad Man all you like... (Score:5, Insightful)
....but the accomplishments in the mideast toward the normalization of Israel status with Arab states is phenomenal.
One wonders what will happen in the next 4 years - considering Biden's preference for accommodation with Iran (the one state that the whole rest of the region can agree to hate/be afraid of) and demonization of Israel in regards the Palestinians - will these gains fall back to previous norms or have they ratcheted to a point that they have made actual progress?
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Expect Biden to launch a war without even talking to Congress about it, just like the last President that won the Nobel Prize for PEACE. The legacy media has already shown that they will run cover for whatever stupid thing he does.
How do the plan to protect the fibre network? (Score:2)
Last we checked the MidEast was overrun with Islamic whack jobs who will stop at nothing to blow up any fibre they can. I cannot see S.Arabia defending it over miles of desert.
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And WHY would you run a fiber cable across empty desert? Wouldn't microwave links make more sense?
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According to TFA, most of the link will be underwater (including the red sea). They will go through a very small part of Arabia and Israel just to avoid Egypt.
Sounds like it's easier to drop a cable in the water than in the desert.
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How many terabits per second can you run over a microwave link? It's connecting Europe with India. There's over a billion people's bandwidth potentially going over that link.
Google Fiber? (Score:1)
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Finally! (Score:2)
The cyber-war was so second millennium 'til now.