Google Announces First Undersea Cable Connecting South America And AsiaPacific

Prospects. Google has announced that it will lay a new cable under the Pacific Ocean to provide a more reliable and flexible Internet connection in the Pacific Ocean. The $400 million project is a collaboration between the tech giant, government agencies and investment funds.

Google has officially announced Project Humboldt, a joint initiative to create a new underwater internet infrastructure. Mountain View Corporation will work with Chile's infrastructure fund Desarrollo País, the French Polynesia Office of Posts and Telecommunications (OPT) and other partners to connect Australia and Chile with a new submarine cable spanning 14,800 kilometers of seabed. Peaceful. .

Humboldt is the first direct cable route between South America and the Asia-Pacific region, according to Google. The new cable confirms the company's commitment to Chile and increases existing investments in digital infrastructure in the country and throughout Latin America. The Chilean government has been working since 2016 to build a direct fiber-optic link between South America and the Asia-Pacific region, and Humboldt is positioning the country as a gateway to Latin America for data from the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the official project page, Humboldt will provide "greater geographic diversity," a new level of flexibility and redundancy, and redundancy of existing telecommunications networks through the new route. Increasing internet bandwidth and reducing latency will play a key role in managing the explosive growth in traffic from new communications technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Google highlighted how submarine cables can contribute to significant economic growth in terms of both gross domestic product (GDP) and job creation, adding that businesses and public organizations can enjoy and offer a better digital experience, while people can learn skills at the same time. and knowledge for a new career. roads. .

Analysys Mason estimates that Google's previous submarine cables in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will generate $178 billion in cumulative GDP growth between 2017 and 2027 and create around 740,000 new jobs by 2027.

Patricia Ray Sommer, chief land management specialist, said Google's public announcement of Humboldt is an important milestone in the history of the project. After years of working behind the scenes, Humboldt is finally entering the "materialization phase." The laying of the cable should be completed in 2026.

The US State Department, which will join the project with an investment of $15 million, said the Humboldt cable is a concrete example of "greater economic cooperation" in the US. The name Humboldt was chosen in a name contest on Chilean social media as a tribute to the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who traveled extensively in the Americas in the early 19th century.

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