This week, Google announced a new subsea cable; Topaz, the first-ever cable to connect Canada and Asia.
Reportedly, local partners from Japan and Canada are helping Google to construct the new subsea cable. Topaz will run from Vancouver to Port Alberni on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and across the Pacific Ocean to the areas of Mie and Ibaraki in Japan. Google anticipates that its cable system will be available in 2023.
Additionally, Google states its subsea cable system will not only offer low-latency access to its services including Gmail, YouTube, and Google cloud but also offer greater capacity to the region for different network operators in Japan and Canada.
The Topaz cable will be housing 16 fiber pairs, totaling the capacity of 240 Terabits per second. Furthermore, it incorporates support for Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS), an efficient and software-defined way to carve up the spectrum on an optical fiber pair for flexibility in routing and advanced resilience.
Back in June 2021, Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada approved the development of Google’s subsea route connecting Canada and Asia.
While Topaz is the first trans-Pacific fiber cable to land on the West Coast of Canada, it’s not the first communication cable to connect to Vancouver Island.
According to Google’s blog post, the Topaz cable is constructed alongside the traditional territories of the Hupacasath, Maa-nulth, and Tseshaht.
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