The search giant, Google had announced recently that it will be building a new undersea network cable which will connect countries like the US, UK and Spain.

The company made it known it was creating a new technology into the cable which is said to be a big upgrade to the older existing lines. The project is tipped to be completed by the year 2022.

The usage of underwater data cables are really vital to global communications infrastructure which carries about 98% of the world’s data according to the company’s estimate.

This type of communication cables are built by communication firms which then charges other companies to use them. The latest of such cable is named “Grace Hopper” after an American computer scientist and naval admiral.

The new infrastructure will hit the UK at Bude, Cornwall and it’s going to be Google’s fourth owned undersea cable.

But Google needs “an ever-increasing amount of transatlantic bandwidth”, according to John Delaney from telecoms analyst IDC.

“Building its own cables helps them choose cable routes that are most optimal,” and near data centres, he said.

“It also minimises operational expenditure by reducing the need to pay telcos and other third-party cable owners for the use of their infrastructure.”

The overseer of the project, Jayne Stowell told the BBC that it needs internet connection that could be relied upon which is why the company embarks on such venture.

“It’s not enough to have a single cable because any element in the network can break from time to time, and if it’s 8,000 metres under the sea, it takes a while to repair,” she said.

And speaking of the transatlantic telecommunications cable, the first was built back in the year 1858 which connects Ireland and the US by telegraph.

There is about 750,000 miles of cable that’s being run between continents in order to support demand for communication and entertainment throughout the world which if measure can be circulated through the earth itself more than 16 times.

The usage of cables are meant to help in tough situations such as earthquakes as well as heavy currents with their lifespan being around 25 years.

But Ms Stowell says some of the transatlantic cables are “going out of service and we need newer, better and more sophisticated technology”.

“It served its need and purpose at the time, but it’s old generation,” she said.

Google has yet to build a cable that lands in mainland China, where its services are restricted by the state and Ms Stowell said there are no plans to build one in the foreseeable future.

“We understand, being an American company, and understand the legalities of what we must abide by,” she said. But she pointed out that the Asia market was bigger than China.

Stowell further addressed the growing fear that the world could soon see two internets with the first being controlled by the Chinese government which is often censored while the much more opened western network.

“The world wide web is dependent upon interconnected networks. One would hope networks would be regarded as neutral and continue to interconnect.”

But as a matter of act, the demand for the usage of internet service has increase exponentially around the world especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic which had prompted numerous countries around the world to issue a lockdown therefore sending everyone to the internet.

With that requires a much faster and reliable internet with speed as companies are often seeking ways of reaching much more customers through the internet. and with that, Google is joining to pursue in the vital data infrastructure development.

Microsoft and Facebook, for example, are joint-owners with telecoms company Telxius of the Marea cable, which runs from the US to Spain.

Back in May, the social network giant announced that it was going to build yet another 37,000km (23,000 miles) undersea cable to supply a much faster internet to about 16 countries in Africa.

And the network cable will be ready to be used by the year 2024 which will be able to deliver about three times faster and more capable than all current undersea cables that are serving the continent.

As a matter of fact, Africa still lags behind in terms of internet access with only four in 10 people having access to the internet within the continent. But with as huge as 1.3 billion population, internet-based companies are quickly emerging to solve different problems within the continent as well as offer much more opportunities to the people.