Search engine Google Inc and five Asian
telecom and communications companies have agreed to invest about $300 million
to develop and operate a trans-Pacific cable network connecting the United
States to Japan.
To be named “FASTER,” the cable network
will have an initial capacity of 60 terabits per second and will connect Los
Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Oregon and Seattle to Chikura and Shima in
Japan.
NEC Corp, which will be the system
supplier for the cable network, said in a statement that construction would
begin immediately and the network would be ready for service in the second quarter
of 2016.
The network would also be able to
connect to neighboring cable systems to extend its capacity beyond Japan to
other Asian countries.
Google currently operates its own
super-fast “Fiber” TV and Internet service in the Kansas City metropolitan
area, and has been trying to extend its network to more cities in the United
States.
Also involved in the project are China
Mobile’s international unit China Mobile International, China Telecom Corp
Ltd’s international arm China Telecom Global, TIME Dotcom Bhd’s Global Transit,
KDDI Corp and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.