Count Google in for Unity cable venture

After a few months during which plans seemed to stall, Google and its network partners the Unity undersea cable consortium have confirmed a $300 million project to build a new undersea cable linking the U.S. and Japan. Being part of the ownership consortium likely will allow Google a better deal in buying capacity than it would have on a cable owned by a different party.

"While Google is the first non-telecom company to take an active role in ownership of a submarine cable, it's not likely that this is the beginning of a new trend," commented TeleGeography Research Director Alan Mauldin in a statement analyzing the news. "Although many non-telecom companies have high bandwidth requirements, few will venture into owning submarine cables anytime soon."

For more:
- read this story [1] at Light Reading Europe
- check out further analysis [2] at TeleGeography

Related articles:
- We asked [3] last November what had happened to the Unity project