Expanding our cloud network for a faster, more reliable experience between Australia and Southeast Asia

Earlier this year, we announced that we are expanding our global infrastructure with new regions and subsea cables, advancing our ability to connect the world and serve our Cloud customers with the world’s largest network.

Today, we’re excited to announce our investment in the Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) Cable System.  

This new addition to the Google submarine network family, combined with investments in the  Indigo, HK-G and SJC subsea cables, will give GCP users access to scalable, diverse capacity on the lowest latency routes via a constellation of cables forming a ring between the key markets of Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Our investment in these cables builds on our other APAC cable systems, namely Unity, Faster and PLCN, interconnecting the United States with Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Taken together, these cable investments provide improved connectivity to GCP’s five cloud regions across Asia and Australia (with more on the way), so that companies using GCP can serve their customers no matter where they are.

The JGA cable system will have two fiber pairs connecting Japan to Guam, and two fiber pairs connecting Guam to Sydney. This provides deeply scalable capacity to both our users and Google Cloud Platform customers. JGA is being co-built by NEC Corporation and Alcatel Submarine Networks. The JGA-South segment is being developed by a consortium of AARnet, Google, and RTI-C, while the JGA-North segment is a private cable being developed by RTI-C. Together, the segments will stretch 9500 km (or nearly 6000 miles).

Whether we’re delivering directions to Maps users, videos to YouTube viewers, or GCP services to businesses, we know a fast and reliable infrastructure makes all the difference. That’s why we continue to invest in strategic routes, many of which require crossing oceans. To learn more about our network, visit our website.