Google officially launches Equiano subsea cable

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/google-officially-launches-equiano-subsea-cable/

by kaycebasques • 4 years ago

298 165 4 years ago

bombcar3• 4 years ago

$1 billion for an undersea cable that long seems almost ... cheap.

I agree. UCLA is building 1 dorm building right now and it's estimated to cost $1.5 billion. Being a Californian real estate project it will no doubt have cost overruns.

paxys3• 4 years ago

This cable would undoubtedly have cost many times that amount had it run along the west coast of the USA rather than Africa. People always forget about currency conversion and purchasing power when having such discussions.

tibbydudeza• 4 years ago

Is that the one with no windows funded by a billionare ????.

est312• 4 years ago

It is a highly automated process. It is also not as highly regulated as other construction projects, as the cable won't kill anybody. There are also no vested interests that want internet connectivity to remain bad in Africa.

throwamon• 4 years ago

What about impact on marine life? Genuine question.

rippercushions2• 4 years ago

Oh yes there are: telco incumbents fight furiously to protect their turf. This is why it's 2022 and it's still illegal (!) to provide video calls over the Internet in the UAE.

https://www.travelizta.com/frequent-question-why-cant-i-make...

Neal Stephenson goes into this in some detail in his 1996 classic:

https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

tomcam• 4 years ago

Agreed. I would have guessed at least 10s of billions. Seems like at that price opening up a new backbone might pay for itself.

bombcar3• 4 years ago

Yeah at Google’s scale not paying for transit would eventually make it worthwhile (they probably peer most of it but someone is paying something).

epivosism• 4 years ago

Looks like it passes close to null island, 0 long, 0 lat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_Island aka

perihelions2• 4 years ago

I think they should make it wind a loop around at that point and see which GIS apps crash.

linuxlizard• 4 years ago

You joke, but I worked on a GPS app that would crash when crossing over the zero meridian. We didn't handle negative zero. The Degree/Minute/Second (DMS) near the meridian will be +/- 0 when degrees is zero. Signed zero is a thing.

megablast• 4 years ago

So there is a buoy there on a 5km cable??? wow.

therealdrag0• 4 years ago

That’s also amazed me. “The depth of the seabed beneath the Soul buoy is around 4,940 metres (16,210 ft).” Didn’t realize people did that sort of thing…

speedgoose• 4 years ago

One of the old referenced article is interesting. They talk about the buoy attracting small fishes, and then bigger fishes, and then fishermen. And some buoys being stolen by fishermen and tracked on their return trip.

https://www.liberation.fr/sciences/1998/12/01/apres-le-pacif...

You can use DeepL.com to translate French to English if needed.

sixhobbits• 4 years ago

What does 'launch' mean when it comes to these cables. It is ready for use? Already has data flowing through?

tobyjsullivan• 4 years ago

I'm speculating but that must mean data flowing through. If I understand correctly, capacity is leased to other tiers of the network. So "launched" would presumably mean that capacity is actively being sold and used now.

skybrian• 4 years ago

The cable is scheduled to start carrying traffic at the beginning of 2023, says Paratus

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/07/africa/google-equiano-subsea-...

dexwiz• 4 years ago

In related news Google announced South Africa as the location for its first Cloud Region in Africa. Some arguments I saw against this in comments was possibly poor global connectivity. Also some commenters lamented that Nigeria would also be a good candidate for a region. This cable looks to address both of those points.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/05/google-picks-south-africa-...

googlryas• 4 years ago

That helps with the West coast, but there are also huge population centers around Lake Victoria/Kenya/Ethiopia that won't have the benefit of a subsea cable?

It's very confusing to me. South Africa is really far out of the way. I guess a 2000 mile round trip from Lagos isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and maybe Kenyans have better connectivity with a data center in the ME or India.

_visgean4• 4 years ago

I think its mostly commercial? If you look at the map of gdp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_countries_by_G... it makes sense to put the cable this way..

Or even better: https://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=118&r=af&t=10&l=en, most users are in SA and NG...

vitus• 4 years ago

Perhaps the "obvious" answer: that's where their competition is. Azure (Johannesburg) and AWS (Cape Town) both have regions in South Africa.

Google does have some presence on both the western / eastern coasts (Nigeria / Kenya) but in general it's tough to be in many other places when there's not really good connectivity. New fibers will help, of course.

(blah blah google employee disclaimer)

ajross• 4 years ago

Seems like east Africa would be better served by overland fiber, no? It's a comparatively straight shot to Israel or Dubai, both of which are well served by existing networks.

walrus012• 4 years ago

That helps with the West coast, but there are also huge population centers around Lake Victoria/Kenya/Ethiopia that won't have the benefit of a subsea cable?

African telecoms in general have been making great progress in building terrestrial fiber optic cable links inland from the coastal cable landing stations.

There is a whole lot more fiber (and resiliency/diversity of paths) than there used to be.

For instance the cable landing station in Freetown, Sierra Leone now has terrestrial trenched fiber going in to the interior of the country, through the 2nd through 5th largest sized cities in the country, then east by land into Liberia and forming a ring with the major telecom sites in Monrovia.

Re: Lagos specifically, Nigeria is already served by a number of other submarine fiber cables and has a decent amount of capacity that ultimately ends up in Spain, Portugal, France and the UK at the other end of the sub-sea fiber. Due to the huge population in Nigeria it has seen a lot more commercial telecom development investment money over the past 20 years.

bhaile• 4 years ago

Coming in 2024. https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/asia-europe-afr...

More info available at https://www.2africacable.net/faq

TheCapeGreek• 4 years ago

As mentioned, the competition is already here.

ZA is not the largest African economy (I believe Nigeria is slightly larger, but they also have ~4x the population to "brute force" the numbers), but it is the most developed with a good amount of techies in the area.

This means more workforce to hire from and more customers.

Central Africa from east to west won't have as nice latency, but it'll be potentially better than EU hosting - or at least it's another option available to them. However I doubt they had to suffer 200ms latency on a roundtrip to EU servers like the Southern Africa.

Havoc2• 4 years ago

There were around 8 undersea cables in place before this so not sure where the poor connectivity angle comes from.

It is quite far though - around 100ms latency to Europe which no cable can fix unfortunately

ehsankia• 4 years ago

Better routing can definitely reduce that 100ms, I don't think that's purely capped by speed of light.

walrus012• 4 years ago

One of South Africa's largest and most serious independent datacenter operators (Teraco) was recently acquired by Digital Realty, the US-based behemoth.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=teraco+ac...

matharmin• 4 years ago

While latency to the rest of the world is high, the connectivity is actually pretty decent over the last couple of years. For around 50 USD per month I get a 100Mbps residential fibre connection, and I get close to the maximum speed to the US or Europe.

That is not quite the same things as the dedicated connections that AWS/Google would want between their data centres, but it's not the same connectivity issues we struggled with 15 years ago when we only had one or two subsea cables.

iso1631• 4 years ago

When I first went to our office in Joburg in 2011, we had 7 different DSLs, each with something like a 500MByte cap per month. It's amazing how quickly things have improved.

annadane• 4 years ago

Google has a lot of failures of their own but they seem at least semi-committed to an open internet (with actual ethical standards), something I can't exactly say for Zuckerberg

ajvs• 4 years ago

Open internet? With all their walled gardens and filter bubbles the idea is pretty laughable from Google.

asah• 4 years ago

meh, Google is "more open" than others e.g. Apple and even when they're forced to weird a stick, they do it reluctantly.

Instead, like the US government, Google have developed mastery of "soft power" making it statistically-rare that they conduct Putin-like tactics. They know that heavyhanded tactics force heavyhanded responses and are actually a sign of weakness, not strength.

To be fair, if their business model came under _material_ pressure to be locked down, I'm not convinced they'd stay open.

As an example, look at Chrome vs adblockers - they could've shut them down years ago, but only acted when adblockers ate materially into the business and they were forced, again recognizing that they'll lose some users to Firefox and Brave.

yrgulation2• 4 years ago

Any news of contributions to africa’s development make me happy. I dont know how to describe the feeling. I see the continent as a hidden gem. I am saddened that europe didnt take such initiative and doesnt promote more substantial investment. It’s literarily right next from us.

_visgean4• 4 years ago

eu has 150b investment package for africa https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/stro...

The Investment Package will facilitate projects in submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cables, as well as cloud and data infrastructures. It will also support regulatory frameworks promoting a digital transition that put people at the centre and the principles of trusted connectivity, such as data protection.
According to a brief (and somewhat detail-thin) explainer that the EU put out, the Global Gateway Investment Package will focus on infrastructure that can facilitate trade and mobility. Also included is a EurAfrica Gateway Cable – an under-sea fibre optic network that will connect sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with Europe. Another focus is electrification – 600m Africans still lack access to electricity. https://www.ntu.edu.sg/cas/news-events/news/details/europe-p...

we are building cables. But also eletricity.

DiggyJohnson• 4 years ago

So the question for GP would be: we’re they not aware of this investment package? Or were they aware of it and take it for granted? Or were they aware of it but consider it not enough?

4ggr02• 4 years ago

And will we then get to collect the profits while being able to claim that we're benevolent because we've helped, or are we actually gifting the infrastructure to them?

bobberkarl• 4 years ago

Don't be fooled. It's all posturing. The EU loves making announcements on how they have a $ package for Africa. But they never follow through. Same for international funds. There are 8 major countries that always follow through: The US, China, UAE, Qatar, Germany, Canada, and some northern European states.

rpadovani• 4 years ago

Actually, EU put $21.5 millions in this cable: they were given to Saint Helena, that then were payed to Google, after a previous cable project failed:

- https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/brazil-africa/s... - https://www.submarinenetworks.com/en/systems/euro-africa/equ...

BurningFrog4• 4 years ago

The African wars have pretty much ended, and the average African is governed fairly decently.

According to a source I'll never find again, Africa is on a European year 1900 economic development level, and catches up 3-4 years per year.

I don't think Africa needs European charity. They'll develop themselves from now on.

JumpCrisscross2• 4 years ago

African wars have pretty much ended

Cameroon [1] and Ethiopia [2] are in the midst of civil wars. The DRC [3] is close to one. Burkina Faso just had a coup [4]. Zimbabwe had one in 2017, Chad arguably in April [5]. (Guinea Bissau tried and failed to join the club.)

Africa is a big continent. But its geopolitical situation remains uniquely unstable.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglophone_Crisis

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigray_War

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamwina_Nsapu_rebellion

[4] https://www.axios.com/2022/10/03/burkina-faso-coup-russia-fl...

[5] https://news.yahoo.com/military-takeovers-rise-africa-113155...

BrandoElFollito5• 4 years ago

average African is governed fairly decently

What does this mean, exactly? (I've been to northern and southern Africa a few times but do not know the in-between)

Do you mean free and fair elections? Fair access to courts?

sirsinsalot• 4 years ago

I wonder how long before they cut it without notice leaving anyone on the other end stranded.

jtchang• 4 years ago

I like to ask non-techies how they imagine their text messages go from the US to Europe. Most people think it is some form of wireless communication like satellite or cellular. They are quite surprised when they realize that it is just one really long string over the Atlantic.

jcq3• 4 years ago

Well they are partly right as phone uses satellite communication with 4G to communicate with telecom backbone

aetherspawn• 4 years ago

None of the following technologies: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, currently use satellites between the consumers' phone and the internet backbone.

moss2• 4 years ago

under the Atlantic* ;)

subsubzero• 4 years ago

Future timeline of this project:

September 12th 2023 - Google undersea fiber team is asked to find other opportunities at the company.

October 23rd 2023 - Google twitter account comments that the undersea cable to South Africa project will not be shut down.

November 12th 2023 - Google undersea cable project to SA officially shut down.

scarface745• 4 years ago

Hopefully Google buried the cables deep enough this time

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/googl...

smadge• 4 years ago

Google has been building undersea cables for 14 years.

johndfsgdgdfg• 4 years ago

Let's start a bet. How long do you think it will take Google to shut it down?

oittaa• 4 years ago

I'll take that bet.

I think the cable will be use in 5 years from now unless there's a large asteroid impact, nuclear war, or other major catastrophe. Any sum between $1k and $1M should be fine for me. You can choose any reputable betting site as the broker.

aantix• 4 years ago

TIL the tightness of the cable affects latency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_communications_c...

This advantage only increases over time, as tighter cables provide higher bandwidth – the 2012 generation of cables drop
the transatlantic latency to under 60 milliseconds, according to Hibernia Atlantic, deploying such a cable that year.[

Are they able to achieve a direct, straight-line path between the two endpoints over thousands of miles?

XorNot• 4 years ago

You never get that with fiber optics to start with - total internal reflection implies the light is traveling a fairly complicated geometry anyway. To do a straight line path it wouldn't be a fiber cable, it would be a tube which you'd have to pressurize and then do a fair bit of work to try and keep from flexing out of alignment (although 3 reflections as opposed to hundreds of thousands probably helps).

uhuruity• 4 years ago

As someone who grew up in East Africa and remembers the days when there wasn't a single submarine cable connecting my country to the rest of the world. I'm happy for West Africa but hope that the East gets some more love soon too :)

TulliusCicero2• 4 years ago

Are there cables that go through the Suez canal? Or is it not worth it to go undersea there?

adolph2• 4 years ago

All subsea cable threads need a link to:

Mother Earth Mother Board

The hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three continents, chronicling the laying of the longest wire on Earth.

https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Earth_Mother_Board

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8242682

fetzu• 4 years ago

I wish I could find/read a version of this amazing piece with the photographs !

balderdash• 4 years ago

What are the economics of such a cable? Who are the customers? What do they pay and how are the contracts structured?

stingraycharles• 4 years ago

I was also curious about this: they mention a few times that it’s a privately owned cable, does that also imply it will be used privately (eg only Google services), or will other ISPs be able to rent capacity on it?

sudhirj• 4 years ago

Most cables are privately owned, as is most of the internet actually. The telcos juts interface with each other and sell each other bandwidth on their cables.

That said, Google will likely reserve some portion of the cable for their inter-datacenter use. That’s how you get fast cross region data transfer in GCP. Same for AWS and Azure, all have some capacity reserved for data between their datacenters.

Bayart2• 4 years ago

Transit is sold in bulk and peered at exchange points. There are SLAs, different rates etc. It's not much different from other kinds of resources, but I don't think it's nearly as automatized as it should be.

TedDoesntTalk2• 4 years ago

and the islands of Saint Helena

Why? How can that possibly be profitable?

kcb2• 4 years ago

"In Brussels the following year, SHG UK Representative, Kedell Worboys, along with Director for Latin America & Caribbean, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, Jolita Butkeviciene, signed a Financing Agreement for the Territorial Allocation of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF 11). As a result, €21.5 million was allocated to St Helena to support the delivery of the SHG Digital Strategy through the realisation of the submarine cable to enable faster and more reliable internet connectivity on the Island.[154]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena#Telecommunication...

bruce5113• 4 years ago

A branch from the cable to the island is relatively cheap. And although the population of the island is only around 5000, the human return on this investment is huge.

In simple economic terms it allows Saints (as they are known) to participate in the global digital economy. Both as providers (everything from programmers to call centres) to consumers (basic things like voice,meetings,streaming etc.)

St Helena now has an airport so with connectivity, tourism also improves. Its a lot easier to take a week to visit a truly exotic location if connectivity is also good.

Currently the islands share a small satillite connection, which is very expensive, and very slow.

In summary, the provision of good connectivity in rural areas helps stem the flood to ever larger urban areas, and allows remote communities to both preserve themselves but also participate directly in a global economy.

TedDoesntTalk2• 4 years ago

The airport you mention is also the most expensive airport in the world, by some measures, and the construction of which was a complete fiasco. So I’m not sure what to make of your other comments. Anyway thanks for the reply.

shmerl• 4 years ago

What does it mean exactly? Is it Google's private cable or it serves general backbone Internet traffic?

returnInfinity• 4 years ago

Looks like both

kaapipo• 4 years ago

So huh, how many years before they're going to sunset it? :P

neals• 4 years ago

I'm not going to be using this cable, just for Google to cancel it at some point in the near future.

TulliusCicero2• 4 years ago

I work at Google and wish this joke was less accurate.

BrandoElFollito5• 4 years ago

I am not sure why you are being down voted. I think that the joke was not really understood.

https://killedbygoogle.com

amelius• 4 years ago

The one you are using right now might be canceled by a Russian sub.

4gotunameagain• 4 years ago

s/Russian/American/g

DisjointedHunt• 4 years ago

For a company with such a competitive moat in global internet bandwidth, i often wonder why they simply don't undercut AWS and Azure on their egress fees and thus cloud bills?

Free unlimited egress would completely change cloud economics.

It's going to happen anyway, either wait to be disrupted by the likes of Cloudflare or do it now and disrupt the industry.

kedihacker• 4 years ago

If they distrupted by something they can just make it free while keeping it high benefits lock in to gcp.

BiteCode_dev• 4 years ago

Cancelling this project in 5 years is going to be a b*tch

jarek832• 4 years ago

Such a brilliant project and imagine that some substantial part of its bandwidth will be taken to serve ads.

jstummbillig• 4 years ago

It does seem a little wasteful to repeatedly transfer something as asynchronous as ads around half the globe when you could just store and serve them from a local data center.

jarek832• 4 years ago

Oh yes, ads waste a lot of resources. But if they tend to be 'tailored to user' then the collected data has to call home first and then choice of ads gets transferred to probably already closed browser tab.

THENATHE• 4 years ago

Who’s bright idea was it to give the Nigerian princes gigabit?

pulse7• 4 years ago

There most be now many cables above other cables when you consider cable crossings in the ocean...

cft• 4 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaudah_Equiano

ksec• 4 years ago

I often struggle to think of something decent from Google. May be when Gmail was spam free and Google Search was fast and accurate. But those didn't last long. If there is one thing I could commend Google, it would be their Datacenter infrastructure and Subsea Cable investment.

JoachimS• 4 years ago

So... how long will it be operational before sent to the Google Graveyard?

zython• 4 years ago

3-18 months from now: Google digs up Equiano subsea cable again and cuts it in half.

EGreg2• 4 years ago

If this cable is ever attacked, we know it had to be Russia.

cloudmatthevv• 4 years ago

This is so cool! 1.6 million jobs in Africa (if that's where people will be hired!) are really needed.

lloydatkinson• 4 years ago

This one will be harder for Google to kill off but I’m sure someone that pushed for this will use it for a promotion and then it will be half forgotten about.

Google officially launches Equiano subsea cable

Related Stories