Google And Orange Team Up To Lay New Data Cable Between US and France 

Google and Telecoms giant, Orange have officially announced a new partnership to work on laying the ‘Dunant’ transatlantic submarine cable.

The new 6,600-kilometer-long data cable will be laid across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and connect France and the United States.

“I am extremely proud to announce this collaboration with Google to build a new, cutting-edge cable between the USA and France,” said Stéphane Richard, chairman and CEO of Orange.

“The role of submarine cables is often overlooked, despite their central role at the heart of our digital world. I am proud that Orange continues to be a global leader in investing, deploying, maintaining and managing such key infrastructure. Google is a major partner for Orange and this project reflects the spirit of our relationship.”

The news is significant. The Dunant cable will be the first new submarine cable between the United States and France in more than 15 years. The cable is a direct response to the ever rapidly increasing demand for data services between the USA and Europe.

The Durant cable is scheduled to come into service in 2020.  

Durant is however just one of many such projects currently being undertaken by Google. The company currently has some seven consortium backed projects due for completion in the next two years, in countries as far afield as Guam, Hong Kong, Ireland, Denmark, and Australia.

Google has spent over $30 billion in the last three years to improve its global infrastructure over three years.  Once the current projects are finished, Google has estimated that it will be responsible for around 25% of the world’s internet traffic.

The first successful transatlantic cable was laid in 1866, and allowed for telegraph messages to sent and received in 1 day.  This reduced the time it took to communicate between Europe and the USA by some 10 weeks.