It is not the first time the giant company announced that it would lay a subsea cable to connect several countries. The announcement was made today by Bikash Koley, VP and Head of Google Global Networking and Head of Technology and Strategy, Google Cloud for Telecommunications. In the post, Koley explains that the new cable is named Apricot and will connect several countries: Singapore, Japan, Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
What are subsea cables?
Because we rely on the digital world for so many things, the company decided to start project Echo, a subsea cable to connect the U.S with Singapore, Guam, and Indonesia, earlier this year. Apricot will also connect six Asian countries, and these infrastructure submarine systems offer many benefits. Koley explained that some of the benefits include: a better resilience for Google Cloud and other digital services, unique routes through the South part of Asia, more bandwidth for Asian startup companies and better connectivity with the U.S. Previous undersea cables owned by Google are: Curie, Dunant, Equiano, Firmina, Grace Hopper and others.
Apricot infrastructure could be ready in three years
According to the announcement, the cable will be laid over 12,000 km, and it could be ready in 2024. Google is not the only giant working on this project. Facebook will also fund the Apricot project, as well as telecom providers from South Asia.
In the past, Google and Facebook announced the project Echo. The two titans have partnered for other projects as well. Two months ago, Koley announced the undersea cable project Firmina. The cable will connect the East Coast of the U.S with Argentina, and it will have additional landings in Brazil and Uruguay. The project was named after the famous Brazilian author Firmina dos Reis.
