Google has announced a $15 billion dollar subsea cable to establish new digital routes and boost infrastructure for AI.
The America-India Connect initiative is a five-year plan extending across four continents. The company intends to establish new digital routes because infrastructure is foundational to prevent the digital divide from becoming an AI divide.
Simultaneously, for operators integrating with major public clouds, this expansion provides backbone capacity to support high-bandwidth enterprise applications. Brian Quigley, VP of Global Network Infrastructure at Google Cloud, stated that reliable infrastructure is the best counter to a digital divide.
Google’s subsea cables expand international routing diversity
The project creates an international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam, referred to as Vizag, on the eastern coast of India. This gateway adds routing diversity to existing landing points in Mumbai and Chennai.
Enterprises often require 99.99 percent uptime for connected industrial applications, making redundant international data corridors a necessity. Google is developing a direct fibre-optic path between Vizag and Chennai on the east coast of India to South Africa.
When combined with the Equiano and Nuvem subsea cable systems, this new route creates a redundant high-capacity link connecting the American east coast around Africa to Vizag.
Google is also delivering a direct subsea cable path between Vizag and Singapore. Linking this path with the Bosun and Tabua cables establishes a South Pacific route connecting the American west coast through Australia to Vizag.
Combined, these three new subsea paths connect India to Singapore, South Africa, and Australia.
On the western coast of India, Google is constructing a direct fibre-optic path between Mumbai and Western Australia. In combination with the TalayLink and Honomoana subsea cable systems, this creates a South Pacific route connecting the American west coast around Australia to Mumbai.
This new connection complements the Blue, Raman, and Sol subsea cables, which together form a data corridor from the American east coast through the Red Sea to Mumbai. The initiative includes four fibre-optic routes that bolster network capacity between the US, India, and locations across the Southern Hemisphere.
Improving enterprise infrastructure and data compliance
Subsea cable investments like Google’s improve internet affordability and reliability, driving productivity and long-term economic growth. Telecom providers and enterprise IT directors rely on redundant infrastructure to manage governance risk during network outages.
With greater access to digital services, businesses and public sector organisations can better serve their communities. By increasing the resilience of the digital backbone in India, the investment improves economic security for a nation of more than one billion people.
Google noted that these subsea cable routes turn maritime merchant shipping paths between the Americas and India into digital trade routes, bringing their economies closer together. The America-India Connect project builds on work with regional partners to advance AI access in Africa, Australia, and the Pacific.
Quigley stated that Google looks forward to sharing more information as it collaborates with partners to further strengthen global connectivity.
See also: Taara targets carrier-grade uptime with optical switching
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