Google is to invest in two subsea cables connecting Australia and Christmas Island.
The investment – part of its Australia Connect Initiative – will deliver two new subsea cables to Australia, improving reliability, resilience, and reach of digital connectivity, said the tech giant.
The Bosun subsea cable will connect Darwin in Australia to Christmas Island, which has onward connectivity to Singapore.
The name Bosun is a homonym, meaning both the iconic bird of Christmas Island and the nautical term for a ship’s lead deckhand.
The second cable will be an interlink cable connecting Melbourne and Perth in Australia to Christmas Island.
The interlink cable will connect to the Homomoana cable system, which connects the US and Australia to French Polynesia, creating a new interconnection point between the US and Asia.
Cable capacities and deployment timelines have not been shared.
Google has partnered with Vocus, NextDC, and SubCo for the projects. Together with Vocus, Google will deliver terrestrial fiber pairs to connect Darwin to the Sunshine Coast and Bosun to the Tabua subsea system, which connects the US and Fiji.
SubCo said it would collaborate with Google on building “coordinated cable landing infrastructure in Maroubra, New South Wales, and Torquay, Victoria, as well as new infrastructure that connects these locations back to the respective parties’ cable landing stations.”
The new infrastructure will also support SubCo’s SMAP cable system, connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth, in addition to Google’s upcoming cables. The 5,000km domestic SMAP cable was first announced in August last year and is expected to be ready for service in 2026. SubCo said in August that the cable would no longer include Tasmania.
Belle Lajoie, co-CEO of Soda Infrastructure/SubCo, said: “We are excited to partner with Google on the expansion of subsea infrastructure in Australia. This collaboration allows both parties to harness shared infrastructure, enhancing resilience, speeding up project delivery, and minimizing environmental and community impact.
"Together, we’re delivering vital subsea connectivity to Australia’s major cities and establishing new, robust subsea cable routes between Sydney, Melbourne, and beyond – strengthening connectivity across the region.”
Craig Scroggie, CEO at NextDC, added: “We are longstanding collaborators of Google, having worked closely together on multiple cable landing facilities. The team [is] excited to extend our partnership to include the Australia Connect initiative which will deliver stronger, faster, and more resilient Internet for Australia and the region.”
There is currently only one other cable landing at Christmas Island; the Australia-Singapore Cable (ASC). Darwin is home to the North-West cable system, with the Asia Connect Cable-1 and Hawaiki Nui 1 cables planned in the coming years.
Details for Google’s Bulikula cable shared
Google is also set to build another cable, connecting Guam, the Marianas Islands, Hawaii, Fiji, and French Polynesia. Some details on capacity have now been revealed.
Plans for the Bulikula cable were first announced in January this year, alongside the Halaihai cable.
Industry observer Philippe Devaux said in a recent LinkedIn post that Google, operating under the name Starfish Infrastructure Inc., will build the first system to directly connect Guam and the Marianas to Fiji, and French Polynesia.
The cable is expected to have 16 fiber pairs with a minimum design capacity of 6Tbps per pair. The system is expected to be operational by Q3 2026.
The system will also include four additional branching units. One of these branching units will be owned and operated separately from the rest of the system. The separate system will have four fiber pairs landing in the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu.
Named Tuvalu Vaka, the separate system will be owned and operated by Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation, which will obtain onward connectivity to Suva, Fiji.
According to Submarine Cable Networks, 11 other cables land in Guam including the Atisa, AAG, AJC, JGA-N, and Tata TGN-Pacific.
The Northern Mariana Islands are home to the Atisa and Mariana-Guam cables.
Google has recently announced several subsea cables, some of which are part of its Pacific Connect initiative. Earlier this year, Google filed an application for the Tabua subsea system. It is also planning the Proa cable, set to connect Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands with Japan.
