May 24, 2024 11:25:00

Google announces 'Umoja,' the first optical cable route plan to connect Africa and Australia, starting from Kenya and reaching Australia via land and undersea

Google has announced plans to build a fiber optic cable route called ' Umoja ' connecting Africa and Australia.

Investing in connectivity and growth for Africa | Google Cloud Blog

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/investing-in-connectivity-and-growth-for-africa/?hl=en

Google is laying optical cable routes to connect various parts of the world, including Japan. However, at the time of writing, there is no direct route between Africa and Australia.

Also, if you look at

the Submarine Cable Map , which shows the current status of undersea cables around the world, you will see that there is no direct route connecting Africa and Australia.

Google's newly announced cable route 'Umoja' will connect Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa with land cables, and connect South Africa to Australia with an undersea cable. 'Umoja' means 'unity' in Swahili.

Umoja's land route will be built jointly by Google and African technology company Liquid Intelligent Technologies . Google said, 'Umoja will enable African countries to reliably connect to each other and the world. Establishing new routes that are different from existing connectivity routes is essential to maintaining resilient networks in Africa, which has historically been subject to large-scale network outages.'

In addition to announcing Umoja, Google also announced that it will work with the Kenyan government to ensure cybersecurity, develop digital talent, and ensure AI safety in Kenya.

In addition, Google announced plans in 2021 to 'invest $ 1 billion (about 157 billion yen) in Africa over the next five years,' but at the time of writing, it has already completed investment of $ 900 million (about 141.3 billion yen).

Google invests 110 billion yen in Africa, why? - GIGAZINE