Up to this point, it has been local telcos, mobile providers, newspaper publishers and others in the media business who have had to ponder what Google might be up to. Trans-oceanic fiber providers might be next. Google apparently is planning to lay its own multi-terabit undersea communications cable across the Pacific Ocean, to be lit in 2009, according to Communications Day.
The Unity cable has been under development for several months. As envisioned, Google will join with other carriers to build the new multi-terabit cable. Google would get access to a fiber pair at build cost.
Partners haven't been announced, but rumors indicate Telekom Malaysia and Verizon, each involved in rival new cables, won't be part of the Google consortium.
There's not necessarily any broader agenda beyond securing low cost bandwidth on a major and growing oceanic crossing. Aside from that, the new capacity helps Google peer directly with Internet Service Providers in Asia.
Google's move still could be disruptive to the capacity industry, though. Obviously, Google's new capacity will take some revenue out of the retail market place.
TeleGeography Research says existing trans-Pacific cables provide on average 3.3 tbps of capacity and that carriers have increasingly been upgrading their existing cables or planning new ones. Trans-Pacific bandwidth demand has increased 41 percent between mid-2006 and mid-2007.
