Google Cloud said on Thursday that it will help construct and operate two submarine cable systems that will connect the Middle East with southern Europe and the Asian continent.
In partnership with Sparkle and other communication platforms, the Blue cable will connect Italy, France, Greece and Israel, and the “Raman” cable will connect Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Oman and India.
Increasing the network’s capacity is critical for Google users and customers around the world to ensure strong, stable connections. The two submarine cable systems are equipped with 16 pairs of fiber optics and are expected to be ready for service in 2024. Subsequently, the consortium of companies plans to promote the construction of additional connection points and link the two systems through terrestrial network assets.
The Raman cable is named after Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, a physicist of Indian descent, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, the first of Asian descent to receive this acclaim in the field of science, Google noted.
Along with the Blue and Raman cables, Google Cloud now has 18 submarine cable investments around the world, including cables set up by Google such as Curry, Donut, Equiano, Firmina and Grasshopper as well as cables set up by Google as part of a consortium including Echo, JGA, Indigo and Havfrue.