Google is preparing to build a new submarine fiber optic cable named “Umoja,” which will connect Africa and Australia. This move comes as major cloud hyperscalers, including Google, AWS, and Microsoft’s Azure, compete for commercial dominance in the market. Google’s decision to build this cable is seen as a response to widespread connectivity issues in East Africa due to faulty undersea cables.
The Umoja cable will start in Kenya and pass through several countries in East Africa before reaching South Africa, where Google operates a data center. Google has already completed the land portion of the cable’s route and is now working on extending it across the Indian Ocean to Perth, Australia. The company has partnered with Liquid Smart Technologies for the land segment of the cable project.
Brian Quigley, Google Cloud’s vice president of global network infrastructure, stated that Umoja will enhance connectivity within Africa and with the rest of the world. The new cable route aims to reduce outages and improve network resilience for the region. Google’s investment in building new cables is part of a broader trend among tech giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon to enhance their infrastructure to provide better services to customers.
The Umoja cable project is similar to the Oman Australia Cable (OAC) connecting Oman to Perth, which is set to launch in 2022. Google has also invested in other Africa-focused cabling projects, such as Equiano, connecting Portugal with Nigeria and South Africa. In addition to the Umoja cable, Google has announced plans to build a submarine cable connecting South America to Asia-Pacific.
While Google has not specified a timeline for completing the Umoja cable, it typically takes around three years to construct a submarine cable from start to finish. Therefore, the Umoja cable may be operational by around 2026. Overall, Google’s investment in building new submarine cables reflects its commitment to expanding its global network infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cloud services and connectivity.
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https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/23/google-to-build-first-subsea-fibre-optic-cable-connecting-africa-with-australia/