Google invests in transpacific cable

Google is joining a consortium to build a transpacific fiber-optic cable, evidence of the need for bandwidth to accommodate the explosive growth globally of Internet communications through text, voice and video.

The move, announced Monday, is the first time an Internet company has invested in an ocean-spanning cable, said Alan Mauldin, research director with Washington-based research firm TeleGeography.

"It shows that companies like Google are not just Web sites you go to," he said.

The 6,200-mile cable, expected to cost about $300 million, is being funded by six companies that, in addition to Google, include telecommunications companies Bharti Airtel in India and SingTel of Singapore, and Pacnet, a Hong Kong-based deep-sea fiber-optic cable network operator.

The announcement comes amid a boom in new cable construction and upgrades of existing lines, the largest expansion of fiber-optic systems since the dot-com bust, when too much cable capacity led to a market collapse and bankruptcy for fiber-optic network operators such as Global Crossing. Fiber-optic cable capacity across the Pacific is expected to increase 96 percent from 2007 through the end of this year, Mauldin said.