Google plans to boost capacity for its Australian cloud offerings with an alternative undersea fibre cable route linking them into Southeast Asia via the Indian Ocean and Thailand.
The additional capacity will be provided via an extension of Google’s interlink cable connecting Melbourne to Western Australia and Christmas Island.
Google’s planned route for the cable from Christmas Island, to be named ‘TalayLink’, veers it west of Sumatra and the Sunda Strait, and through the Indian Ocean and on to Southern Thailand.
The Sunda Strait is reputed to be hazardous for ships and Google noted in a statement that the route, which frequently serves Singapore, is already well-served for subsea cable connectivity.
Google also announced that the interlink cable will land at Mandurah, about 75 kilometres south of Perth.
There, Google plans to boost land-based infrastructure to support the TalayLink undersea cable system with a new connectivity hub.
“These strategic investments are designed to future-proof regional connectivity and accelerate the delivery of advanced digital and AI services through cable switching, content caching, and colocation capabilities,” Google said in a statement.
Google has also been working the Thailand Board of Investment and local carriers there on boosting land capacity to support the subsea system at that end. They include AIS and ALT Telecom.
Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), Secretary General, Narit Therdsteerasukdi said that the cable would support the country’s aim to play bigger role in the region’s digital-driven economic growth.
“The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) is fully committed to supporting Google’s investment in Thailand, fostering the growth of the nation’s digital economy, and advancing digital skills to ensure inclusive and sustainable development,” he said.
Google has been busy working with local network infrastructure providers to wire Australia into the rest of the world during the last 12 months.
Around this time last year, Google Cloud joined a consortium of local government and commercial network partners to announce ‘Australia Connect’ – a cable project linking capitals across the top of Australia to Christmas Island west of the continent to South Pacific island nations in the east via an inland route from Darwin the Sunshine Coast.
The Australia Connect cable system will use an undersea cable route to link Darwin to Christmas Island named ‘Bosun’.
The inland stretch of the route to the Sunshine Coast closes the loop with TalayLink, Fiji and French Polynesia by hooking into the Tabua and Honomoana South Pacific subsea cable systems, which land in Melbourne and Sydney.
The eastern systems then continue to push on into east of the globe reaching the US.
Google’s partners on the Australia Connect project include NEXTDC, SUBCO, Vocus, and various state and local governments within interests in its completion along the route.
At the time, in her former role as Communications Minister, Attorney General Michelle Rowland said the project would support the federal government in its “active work with industry and government partners to support secure, resilient and reliable connectivity across the Pacific.”