The Anchor Found Near the Cut Google Cable–It’s From the S.S. Ballmer, Sir, Redux
by John Paczkowski
Posted on August 26, 2008 at 1:05 PM PT
Who would have thought that a search company that began as a Ph.D. research project back in 1996 would someday become a behemoth of such bandwidth-consuming appetite that it would require its own high-bandwidth undersea communications cables? Earlier this year, Google revealed that it had joined a six-company consortium to build a new multi-terabit undersea cable linking the U.S. and Japan. And now it appears the company is planning at least two more. According to TeleGeography, Google (GOOG) is part of another consortium of carriers hoping to build an intra-Asian submarine cable system that would connect Japan with Guam, the Philippines island of Luzon, Hong Kong, southern Thailand and Singapore. The company is also said to have held exploratory discussions with a number of South African telecoms about jointly building another new subsea cable connecting to Africa. Why such interest in undersea optic cables? Google would likely claim the volume of data it needs to move around the world requires the kind of capacity they provide. But there’s another reason as well. Fast, reliable connectivity encourages people to use the Internet more. And that’s good for Google’s overall business. “Google wants people to pay as little as possible for access,” a source familiar with the company’s plans told ITWeb. “In fact, they don’t really care if it is totally free, because it is good for them in the long run.”
