Google is planning a new under-sea cable linking Perth to several African countries, making it the first direct link between Australia and Africa.The Umoja cable system includes a terrestrial route from Kenya, through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where it connects to the Google Cloud domain
To facilitate future expansion, “entry points” have been established for other countries to join the overland route.
The submarine segment will extend from South Africa, cross the Indian Ocean and reach Australia.
Google revealed in a blog post that Umoja will increase the reliability of connectivity between African countries and the rest of the world. In order to maintain a robust communications network in an area historically prone to high outages, a different approach from existing communication channels is critical
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has expressed support for Google’s investment in cable, which has the important aims of promoting Australian networks and global digital inclusion, which will help Umoja access the cable.
The destruction of nearby undersea tunnels in eastern and southern Africa this year has caused communications problems in the region, including the Azure outage.
Google also recently announced investments in new routes to connect Australia, including the Humboldt line between Sydney and Chile and the South Pacific connectivity project between Australia and the US.
