Skip to main content

Google to run a 4,000-mile cable between Virginia and France


France and Virginia will soon be connected — all in the name of better internet service.

In a statement this week, Google announced that it would be constructing an undersea, transatlantic cable that will span 4,000 miles of open ocean, from Virginia Beach to the French Atlantic coast. The project is expected to be completed and fully functional by 2020 and is meant to help with the expansion of Google Cloud. Moreover, Google says that web traffic across the Atlantic is now particularly busy, which makes the timing and placement of this new cable particularly appropriate.

Recommended Videos

The U.S. landing of Virginia Beach is also convenient: The company has plans for a data center in the northern part of the state. This won’t be the first internet cable to call Virginia Beach home, for the record; just last year, a cable between Virginia Beach and Bilbao, Spain also went into operation. That particular project was a joint effort among Microsoft, Facebook, and telecommunications firm Telxius.

Underwater cables serve as the major carriers of the internet, and are responsible for the vast majority of the world’s digital traffic — 90 percent, to be exact. Google’s latest private subsea cable (named Dunant after the first Nobel Peace Prize winner and Red Cross founder, Henri Dunant), will add “network capacity across the Atlantic, supplementing one of the busiest routes on the internet,” noted Google’s Jayne Stowell, a “strategic negotiator,” in a blog post.

The Dunant is the second private subsea cable project Google has taken on. Its first was named Curie, and the name of its third (if it’s built) will follow the same alphabetical scheme, and begin with an “E.” So why has Google chosen to take on these projects independently? The company explained that there were three major considerations: first, performance and latency; second, customer needs with regard to capacity; and finally, guaranteed bandwidth for the lifetime of the cable.

Google notes that all of its investments in internet cables seek to satisfy the same goals: “helping people and businesses can take advantage of all the cloud has to offer.” The tech giant added, “We’ll continue to look for more ways to improve and expand our network, and will share more on this work in the coming months.”

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Google discontinues Pixel 5, Pixel 4a 5G after Pixel 5a launch
The back of a Pixel 5, showing its camera and fingerprint sensor.

Google has discontinued the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G barely 10 months after launch, the company confirmed this week. While eagle-eyed observers had noticed fluctuating stock levels on both Pixels globally, Google had yet to officially weigh in one way or the other until now.

"With our current forecasts, we expect Google Store in the U.S. to sell out of Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 in the coming weeks following the launch of Pixel 5a (5G). The Pixel 5a (5G) is a great option for customers and delivers valuable hardware upgrades compared to the Pixel 4a (5G), all at a lower price point," a Google spokesperson confirmed to Digital Trends. This will also apply to non-U.S. markets, with UK vendors like Carphone Warehouse and John Lewis no longer stocking the older Pixels. The older Pixel 4a remains on sale as a low-cost Pixel option.

Read more
Google might have just complicated running Android apps in Windows 11
Android Apps on Windows 11

Running Android apps via the Amazon App store is one of the biggest features of Microsoft's new Windows 11 operating system, but Google might have just complicated things a bit.

In a change of policy, Google is requiring app developers to embrace the new Android App Bundle standard, and move away from the APK file format that otherwise could have been used to sideload Android apps in Windows 11.

Read more
Google Pixel 4a gets box-cutter treatment in extreme durability test
google pixel 4a extreme durability test

Google Pixel 4a Durability Test! – Simply Solid?

Google’s Pixel 4a smartphone launched in August 2020, and YouTuber Zack Nelson, well known for his methodical yet extreme smartphone durability tests at JerryRigEverything, recently got around to taking his trusty box cutter to the device (above).

Read more