Google will connect Africa to Australia with submarine fiber optic cable
Technology giant Google is preparing to build the first submarine fiber optic cable connecting the continents of Africa and Australia. Google’s announcement comes after widespread outages across Africa. The new cable line, called “Umoja”, starts in Kenya and passes through the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, then completes its overland journey in South Africa. Work continues to route the cable across the Indian Ocean to Perth, Australia.
Google connects continents with fiber optic cable. The American technology giant is preparing to build the first submarine fiber optic cable connecting the African and Australian continents.
The new cable line, called “Umoja”, starts in Kenya and passes through various countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and then completes its overland journey in South Africa. Google’s African data center region has been operating in Johannesburg since the beginning of this year.
Google confirmed that the terrestrial section of the route was completed and announced that it was working with a company called Liquid Intelligent Technologies for this section. Work to route the cable across the Indian Ocean to Perth, Australia, is ongoing and there is no confirmed timeline for completion.
Google Vice President: African countries will be able to establish more reliable connections
“Umoja will enable African countries to connect with each other and the rest of the world more reliably. Creating a new route that differs from existing connectivity routes is a region that has historically experienced high-impact outages,” Brian Quigley, Google Cloud’s VP of Global Network Infrastructure, said in the blog post. “It is critical to maintaining a resilient network for the future.”
Submarine fiber infrastructure investments of technology giants accelerated
Hundreds of investments by technology companies, including Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, extend into the world’s seas, oceans and waterways. Thanks to these submarine fiber optic cables, technology companies can offer lower latency and quality data transfer and connection services to their customers.