Google is building Equiano: third under-water cable between Portugal and South Africa

Google has announced plans to build Equiano: another of its undersea cables connecting Portugal and South Africa.

It will eventually also connect Nigeria, hence the name Equiano, after an enslaved Nigerian writer who bought his own freedom.

Equiano is Google’s 3rd private cable after Dunant which connects Europe and the US, and Curie, connecting US and Chile.

It will be the first undersea cable to use optical switching at the fiber pair level making it easier to allocate capacity on an as needed basis.

Google emphasizes that Equiano will be able to carry about 20 times the capacity of the last cable built to serve this region. It will feature several branching units that can be used to connect lines to other countries in between the two nodes.

The first branch will connect the cable to Lagos, Nigeria.

It is possible that Google is setting up Equiano in preparation for its first data center in Africa. This is not beyond the realm of the possible, as a lot of Google’s competitors have data centers on the continent.

Related article: Google’s 9000Km undersea cable between Japan and US goes live

In addition to having their own cables, Google is also a partner in a number of cable consortia operating cables globally.

Alcatel Submarine Networks will be contracted to build the cable. The first phase of this project should be complete by 2021.