Google is building a new subsea cable, called Grace Hopper, to boost internet speed. This will be the world’s first submarine cable to use optical fiber switching technology.
The search giant said that the new technology increases reliability and allows traffic to switch based on demand or connectivity changes. The undersea cable will enhance Google’s capacity and power services like Meet, Gmail and Google Cloud.
The new cable will be equipped with 16 fiber pairs, double the current fastest subsea cable, which is jointly owned by Microsoft and Facebook. It is also a significant upgrade to the older existing lines connecting the US with Europe.
This will also be Google’s first-ever route to Spain as the search giant is eyeing an integration of the upcoming Google cloud region in Madrid to its global infrastructure.
Grace Hopper linking US with UK and Spain
“We are excited to announce a new subsea cable-Grace Hopper,” Bikash Koley, VP, Google Global Network, said in a statement.
It will provide better resilience for the network that underpins Google’s consumer and enterprise products, he added.
The new cable that links the US with the UK and Spain will be Google’s fourth private undersea cable joining its other private subsea cables, Curie, Dunant and Equiano to connect far-flung continents along the ocean floor.
