Google has landed the Tabua subsea cable in Maroochydore, Queensland. Named after a sacred Fijian whale’s tooth, Tabua forms part of Google’s South Pacific Connect initiative, which also includes the Honomoana cable linking the U.S. and Australia to French Polynesia. Together, these systems will deliver capacity across the South Pacific.
Under the South Pacific Connect initiative, Google will establish physically diverse cable landing stations in Fiji and French Polynesia, which will be connected by an interlink cable to create a resilient ring between Australia, Fiji, and French Polynesia.
In April 2024, Google announced plans to extend the Tabua system to Hawaii and build the Taihei subsea cable connecting Hawaii to Japan. Together, Tabua, Taihei, and Honomoana will form an integrated network linking the U.S., Australia, and Asia.
The Tabua cable system is privately owned and operated by Starfish Infrastructure Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Google LLC. The system comprises sixteen fibre pairs, each designed to deliver approximately 17 Tbps of capacity per pair, giving a total system capacity of 272 Tbps.
Its transpacific trunk spans 13,323 kilometres between Los Angeles, California, and New South Wales, Australia, with additional branching segments to Oahu, Suva, Natadola, and Queensland.
Tabua is the first subsea system from the continental U.S. to feature dual landings in both Australia and Fiji, on the east and west sides of the main island of Viti Levu. This design offers path diversity and provides redundancy in case of a single branch failure. It also supports single-end power source capability, improving resilience and operational reliability.
Vocus was selected as Google’s partner to deliver the system and currently operates a portfolio of submarine cables linking Australia’s north and west to key markets in Asia. The Tabua subsea cable connects directly into Vocus’ 50,000-kilometre national fibre network.
Andrés Irlando, CEO of Vocus Group, commented on LinkedIn, “Google’s Tabua subsea cable made landfall today in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, linking into Vocus’ 50,000 km national fibre network. Tabua is part of Google’s Australia Connect cable system, running from the US to Australia via the Pacific.
“Together with Google, Sunshine Coast Council, and NEXTDC, we’re expanding capacity and strengthening the resilience of international connectivity and putting Australia at the heart of a new digital infrastructure route between the US and Asia.
“Congratulations to our partners Google, Sunshine Coast Council, Craig Scroggie and the NEXTDC team, and a huge shout out and thank you to the incredible Vocus team that helped make this critical infrastructure project a reality.”
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