Google is building a new international subsea cable system in Southeast Asia, called INDIGO. The new cable system will serve Google traffic between Australia and Asia, connecting Perth, Sydney and Singapore, with a branch to Jakarta.
The new cable will span approximately 9,000 kilometers, and its two fiber pairs provide a design capacity of around 18 terabits per second (Tbps), with the option to expand in the future. At 18 Tbps, INDIGO provides enough capacity for people in Singapore and Sydney to join 8 million simultaneous high-definition Google Hangout video conference calls.
Alcatel Submarine Networks will construct the cable, which is expected to be completed by mid-2019. Google has now invested in five submarine cables in the Asia-Pacific region and seven overall. By investing in these cables, the company hopes to better compete with other cloud providers and consumer internet companies.