Latest news with #fiberOptic
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Google partners with Chile to deploy a trans-Pacific submarine cable
SANTIAGO, Chile — Google signed an agreement with Chile on Wednesday to deploy an undersea fiber optic cable connecting South America with Asia and Oceania, a first-of-its-kind project that aims to cement the South American country's status as a major digital hub. The Humboldt Cable, envisioned for deployment in 2027, is a 14,800-kilometer (9,200-mile) submarine data cable that will connect Chile's coastal city of Valparaíso with Sydney, Australia through French Polynesia. The initiative is being launched almost a decade after it was first proposed in 2016, and six years after the initial studies to determine its feasibility. 'This is the first submarine cable in the South Pacific, so it's an important commitment', Chilean Transport Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz told journalists. Chile, home to one of Google's largest data centers in Latin America, is currently connected to the United States and the rest of the region via an undersea cable. This cable also provides Chile with a longer route to other continents. Officials from both Google and the Chilean government hailed the project as critical infrastructure with potential to attract millions of dollars in investment from major tech companies, mining and banking firms in Chile and Australia. 'The idea of building this cable is that it can also be used not only by Google but also by other users, such as technology companies operating in Chile,' said Cristian Ramos, director of telecommunications infrastructure for Latin America at Alphabet, Google's parent company. Although Google did not disclose its total investment, Patricio Rey, general manager of local partner Desarrollo País, a state-owned infrastructure company, estimated the cable project's value at $300 million to $550 million, with Chile contributing $25 million. The Humboldt Cable will establish Chile as a data gateway for the Asia-Pacific, while strengthening its relations with Asian nations, especially China, its largest trading partner. It also comes as demand for undersea cables surges due to increased reliance on cloud computing services. The next stages involve installing the submarine cable, selecting and contracting a telecommunications operator, and constructing landing stations in Chile. The initiative could heighten tensions as Chile finds itself caught in the middle of an intensifying rivalry between China and the Trump administration. Undersea cables have long been flash points in geopolitical disputes . ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Google partners with Chile to deploy a trans-Pacific submarine cable
Google signed an agreement with Chile on Wednesday to deploy an undersea fiber optic cable connecting South America with Asia and Oceania, a first-of-its-kind project that aims to cement the South American country's status as a major digital hub. The Humboldt Cable, envisioned for deployment in 2027, is a 14,800-kilometer (9,200-mile) submarine data cable that will connect Chile's coastal city of Valparaíso with Sydney, Australia through French Polynesia. The initiative is being launched almost a decade after it was first proposed in 2016, and six years after the initial studies to determine its feasibility. 'This is the first submarine cable in the South Pacific, so it's an important commitment", Chilean Transport Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz told journalists. Chile, home to one of Google's largest data centers in Latin America, is currently connected to the United States and the rest of the region via an undersea cable. This cable also provides Chile with a longer route to other continents. Officials from both Google and the Chilean government hailed the project as critical infrastructure with potential to attract millions of dollars in investment from major tech companies, mining and banking firms in Chile and Australia. 'The idea of building this cable is that it can also be used not only by Google but also by other users, such as technology companies operating in Chile,' said Cristian Ramos, director of telecommunications infrastructure for Latin America at Alphabet, Google's parent company. Although Google did not disclose its total investment, Patricio Rey, general manager of local partner Desarrollo País, a state-owned infrastructure company, estimated the cable project's value at $300 million to $550 million, with Chile contributing $25 million. The Humboldt Cable will establish Chile as a data gateway for the Asia-Pacific, while strengthening its relations with Asian nations, especially China, its largest trading partner. It also comes as demand for undersea cables surges due to increased reliance on cloud computing services. The next stages involve installing the submarine cable, selecting and contracting a telecommunications operator, and constructing landing stations in Chile. The initiative could heighten tensions as Chile finds itself caught in the middle of an intensifying rivalry between China and the Trump administration. Undersea cables have long been flash points in geopolitical disputes. ____
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Google partners with Chile to deploy a trans-Pacific submarine cable
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Google signed an agreement with Chile on Wednesday to deploy an undersea fiber optic cable connecting South America with Asia and Oceania, a first-of-its-kind project that aims to cement the South American country's status as a major digital hub. The Humboldt Cable, envisioned for deployment in 2027, is a 14,800-kilometer (9,200-mile) submarine data cable that will connect Chile's coastal city of Valparaíso with Sydney, Australia through French Polynesia. The initiative is being launched almost a decade after it was first proposed in 2016, and six years after the initial studies to determine its feasibility. 'This is the first submarine cable in the South Pacific, so it's an important commitment', Chilean Transport Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz told journalists. Chile, home to one of Google's largest data centers in Latin America, is currently connected to the United States and the rest of the region via an undersea cable. This cable also provides Chile with a longer route to other continents. Officials from both Google and the Chilean government hailed the project as critical infrastructure with potential to attract millions of dollars in investment from major tech companies, mining and banking firms in Chile and Australia. 'The idea of building this cable is that it can also be used not only by Google but also by other users, such as technology companies operating in Chile,' said Cristian Ramos, director of telecommunications infrastructure for Latin America at Alphabet, Google's parent company. Although Google did not disclose its total investment, Patricio Rey, general manager of local partner Desarrollo País, a state-owned infrastructure company, estimated the cable project's value at $300 million to $550 million, with Chile contributing $25 million. The Humboldt Cable will establish Chile as a data gateway for the Asia-Pacific, while strengthening its relations with Asian nations, especially China, its largest trading partner. It also comes as demand for undersea cables surges due to increased reliance on cloud computing services. The next stages involve installing the submarine cable, selecting and contracting a telecommunications operator, and constructing landing stations in Chile. The initiative could heighten tensions as Chile finds itself caught in the middle of an intensifying rivalry between China and the Trump administration. Undersea cables have long been flash points in geopolitical disputes. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sikora: Broadband investment will bring homes online in 2025
May 17—MORGANTOWN — Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora said he expects the county's broadband projects to start bringing people online this year. The commission used approximately $8 million of its $20.6 million American Rescue Plan Act dollars to leverage more than $20 million in broadband projects by partnering with Internet service providers Comcast and Frontier. Sikora said both ISPs are moving forward as planned and on schedule, noting the deadline to expend those ARPA dollars is Dec. 31, 2026. "But we expect significant progress in 2025, and certainly by spring of 2026 a lot of these projects should be nearing completion. Of course, we allow some slack in there to allow for any unforeseen issues, " he said. "The Frontier project, I mean, we're already having reports of people seeing them doing the work in the Halleck Road area. So it's out there and people are noticing it." The commission has a total of five deployment projects in process — one with Frontier and four with Comcast. Those projects will deploy a total of 223.5 miles of fiber optic cable and provide connections for an estimated 2, 550 addresses. The Frontier project Sikora referenced will use about 11.4 miles of cable to provide connection opportunities for some 250 homes in the area of Gladesville and Halleck roads. The largest of the public /private endeavors was announced in June, when the commission said it was putting up just under $6 million to pull in an $11.84 million investment from Comcast to connect more than 2, 100 homes and businesses. While the project will touch unserved and underserved areas across the county, there's a particular emphasis on the western end, which has the greatest number of dark zones. Comcast also has smaller projects in the areas of Stewarts Run, River Road, and Gandalf Road (Snake Hill). Ricky Frazier Jr., senior vice president of Comcast's Keystone Region, said work is underway. "Comcast has started work on several network expansion projects across west, central, and eastern Monongalia County to connect unserved or underserved residents and businesses to our Xfinity and Comcast business services, " he said. "We value the continued partnership with Monongalia County as we look to deliver our fast, reliable Internet and innovative technology through these network expansions." These projects are the culmination of a four-year process that started when the commission hired Ohio-based Ice Miller to put together a comprehensive countywide broadband plan in May 2021. The plan would ultimately cost the county about $500, 000. While the commission initially anticipated using the finished document to secure federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant dollars directly, the free-for-all nature with which money started being distributed caused it to shift gears. "We saw the writing on the wall, that a lot of these grants were going directly to ISPs. Well, we're an anomaly out there in that we have a plan and a strategy for executing that plan where nobody else really had that, " Sikora said. "So, when there was a move to rely on the ISPs to do all that legwork that we had already done, it kind of took the legs out from underneath us, so we had to pivot and move towards bringing the ISPs to us as partners." Frustrations are already mounting over the speed at which those BEAD dollars are coming out of Washington — but that's just the beginning. When and if those dollars reach their final recipients, that starts a five-year clock to build out the promised project. Meanwhile, work is underway in Monongalia County. "You still have grants that were awarded under RDOF (Rural Digital Opportunity Fund) where there's been no progress. What was that, five years ago ? So, it's kind of a mess. If you want to make something real confusing, get the government involved — and I say that as a county commissioner, " Sikora laughed. "We operate a little differently than other government entities."
