Google, Others to Build Asia Undersea Cable

A consortium including Google and KDDI has signed a deal to build and operate an international undersea cable system, estimated to cost $US400 million ($436m). Globe Telecom, part owned by Singapore Telecommunications, and units of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are also part of the consortium. he cable system, named Southeast Asia Japan Cable, has a design capacity of 17 terabits per second upgradeable to 23 Tbps, the highest capacity system ever built so far, the companies said in a joint statement. It is targeted to be operational by the second quarter of 2012