Google invests in trans-pacific cable

Confirming earlier rumors, Google announced it has joined a consortium of five other companies to build a 6,200-mile high-bandwidth, undersea fiber-optic cable linking the United States and Japan. The search giant will join Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel to form the Unity Bandwidth Consortium, which will dole out approximately $300 million for the construction of the cable.

The Unity cable will reportedly increase Trans-Pacific bandwidth capacity by about 20 percent, with the potential to add up to 7.68 terabits per second. The move marks the first time an Internet company has invested in an ocean-spanning cable. But despite speculation that the company has broad ambitions in the telecom area, Google has stated it is joining the project to cut the high costs of sending massive amounts of search, video and application traffic around the world.