Google switches on new undersea cable for faster internet speeds in Asia

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Google is speeding up its internet services in Asia once again. Fresh from expanding its data centers in the region — which are located in Singapore and Taiwan — last year, the company said today that it has switched on a new undersea cable that will quicken services like YouTube and its cloud computing platform.

 

The cable connects Google’s facility in Taiwan with a location in Japan, which itself is connected to the U.S. via an undersea cable from the FASTER Consortium which has the honor of being the planet’s fastest fiber optic undersea cable.

 

Google said the Japan-Taiwan cable supports speeds of up to 26 terabits per second.

 

 

The search giant is particularly keen to increase data speeds in Asia because of the vast numbers of people from the region who are coming online for the first time. In a recent report co-authored with Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Google said that 3.8 million people go on the internet for the first time each month in Southeast Asia alone — that’s not even including India or other places.

 

“You may not notice right away, but this new cable should help Google products and services load more quickly across the region. It should also improve the reliability and consistency of this speedier experience, since the cable was strategically built outside of tsunami zones to help prevent network outages related to natural disasters,” Google said in a blog post.

 

Google said last year it has spent more than $1 billion constructing and staffing its two data centers in Asia, and no doubt there is a lot more investment to come.

“With more people coming online every day in Asia than anywhere else in the world, we’ve been working hard to invest in the infrastructure needed to make the Internet work for all of us who live in the region,” it added.

 

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I hope they do it elsewhere, too.

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AUG 15, 2014 @ 06:59 PM 17,283 The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets

How Google Stops Sharks From Eating Undersea Cables

Amit Chowdhry , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

A few days ago, Google GOOGL +0.33% announced that it was investing in a $300 million undersea fiber optical cable system called FASTER. The FASTER cable system will offer much higher broadband speeds for countries in Asia. However, FASTER will need extra protection because of shark attacks (yes, you read that right).

At the Cloud Roadshow event in Boston last week, Google Product Manager Dan Belcher said that the cables are being wrapped in Kevlar-like material to prevent shark bites from damaging the line. Here is a video of a shark attempting to eat some undersea fiber optic cables, via NetworkWorld:

Shark attacks on undersea data cables are fairly common. A New York Times article from 1987 said the first piece of evidence related to a shark attacking a cable was discovered in an experimental line off the Canary Islands 29 years ago. James M. Barrett, a former deputy director of international engineering for AT&T T -0.35%, said that there were 55,000 or 60,000 miles of old undersea cable made out of copper that did not have a single case of shark biting, meaning sharks prefer to snack on fiber optic cables specifically. It is believed that the electrical current in the fiber-optic lines attract the sharks, triggering a feeding reflex. Sharks are known to have volt sensors in their mouths to find prey so the optical fiber cables may "confuse" them into thinking it is food.

Dr. Chris Lowe, one of the founders of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach believes that sharks attack the cables for a different reason. He told Wired that sharks may just be curious about the cables. “If you had just a piece of plastic out there shaped like a cable, there’s a good chance they’d bite that too,” said Dr. Lowe in the interview. The undersea cables are also susceptible to damage by ship anchors and earthquakes.

 

 

 

Aside from FASTER, Google invested in two other undersea cable systems: UNITY and SJC (South-East Asia Japan Cable). In fact, Google owns over 100,000 miles of private fiber optic routes around the world. Some of these cables are as thin as a garden hose.

The news about Google protecting its cables from sharks comes on the heels of the release of "Sharknado 2: The Second One" on July 30th and this week's "Shark Week" series on the Discovery Channel.

 

Source:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2014/08/15/how-google-stops-sharks-from-eating-undersea-cables/#7e397bfc1f2b