A consortium of six companies, including Google, is investing $300 million in a new cable system that will connect the United States with two points in Japan. The system should be ready by mid-2016, the consortium announced on Monday.
Work on the fiber optic cable system, which is called Faster and on paper has an initial capacity of 60 terabits per second, has started immediately, according to the six participating companies. The intention is to connect the two Japanese cities of Chikura and Shima with the American hubs, which serve Los Angeles and San Francisco, among others.
Besides Google, China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI and SingTel are also part of the consortium. The six are investing $300 million in the new internet cable, which will be laid by NEC. In its 30 years of existence, the company has already laid some 200,000 kilometers of cables on the ocean floor.
According to the chairman of the Faster project, the system is necessary for connecting parts of the world to the internet. “Together, these cables form important infrastructure that supports the global Internet and means of communication,” said chief executive Woohyong Choi. “All internet users worldwide benefit from this.”