Google backs $300 million cable project to lay 5,000 miles of superfast broadband across the Pacific Ocean

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Google is investing further in the underground cable network by backing a project that will span the Pacific Ocean.

Called Faster, the $300 million (£178 million) scheme will connect Japan to the west coast of the US.

The cable will stretch 5,000 miles (8,000km) under the ocean, and will then link up with local cable systems already in place.

Called Faster, the project will connect Japan to the west coast of the US. The cable will stretch 5,000 miles (8,000 km) under the ocean, at depths of around 7,000 miles (11,300 km), and will then link up with local cable systems already in place. Faster is expected to be complete by Spring 2016

Faster is expected to be completed by Spring 2016.

On the Japan side, the cable will land at Chikura and Shima and is designed to improve the network further into Asia.

While on the US side, the cable will connect networks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

‘At Google we want our products to be fast and reliable, and that requires a great network infrastructure, whether it's for the more than a billion Android users or developers building products on Google Cloud Platform,’ said Urs Hölze, senior vice president of technical infrastructure at Google.

‘And sometimes the fastest path requires going through an ocean.

'That’s why we’re investing in Faster, a new undersea cable that will connect major West Coast cities in the US to two coastal locations in Japan with a design capacity of 60 terabits per second.’

That’s ten million times faster than a household cable modem.

Google has previously invested in other cable projects, including Unity in 2008, which also joined Japan to the US, and the South-East Asia Japan Cable (SJC) in 2011.

This interactive map plots the location of all the underwater submarine cables across the world. It was created by Washington-based TeleGeography

The SJC links eight points in Asia including Chikura in Japan, Shantou in China, Chung Hom Kok, Hong Kong, Nasugbu, the Philippines, Telisai, Brunei, Songkhla, Thailand, and Tuas, Singapore.

Google has previously invested in other cable projects, including Unity in 2008, and the South-East Asia Japan Cable (SJC) in 2011 (pictured)

In addition to Google, the Faster project has been backed by China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and SingTel.

Mr. Woohyong Choi, the chairman of the Faster executive committee, said: 'Faster is one of a few hundred submarine telecommunications cables connecting various parts of the world.

'These cables collectively form an important infrastructure that helps run global Internet and communications.

‘The Faster cable system has the largest design capacity ever built on the Trans-Pacific route, which is one of the longest routes in the world.

‘The agreement announced today will benefit all users of the global Internet.'

Almost 95 per cent of the internet used everyday is carried between countries through two-inch (50mm) thick lines.

In 2006, submarine cables carried just one per cent of traffic - an increase of 94 per cent in just eight years, according to official figures from the International Cable Protection Committee.

Since 2012, the number of submarine cables have almost doubled from 150 to 285.