Google recently unveiled its first-ever fiber optic cable that directly connects Australia with Africa.

According to a statement from the Google Cloud website dated May 24, the fiber optic cable route called "Umoja" ("Unity" in Swahili) would start in Kenya. It would pass through Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa before it would cross the Indian Ocean and make landfall in what was believed to be Perth, the capital city of the Australian state of Western Australia, according to the map displayed on the statement. 

A company representative has confirmed to TechCrunch that the land phase of the route has been completed with the help of the African firm Liquid Intelligent Technologies. While it has not provided a confirmed timeline regarding the underwater segment, a typical submarine cable construction takes around three years.

Currently, the only underwater cable in the Indian Ocean connected to Australia is SUB.CO's Oman Australia Cable runs from Muscat to Perth via the Diego Garcia and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which has been operating since 2022.

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Connecting Africa with Australia, Europe

Google Cloud vice president for global network infrastructure Brian Quigley said the Umoja route would also pass through the Google Cloud region anchored in Johannesburg and connect with Equiano, Google's East Atlantic underwater cable route running from Portugal to South Africa with a midway hub in Nigeria, via Cape Town as part of its Africa Connect initiative.

YNews reported that US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman, Kenyan President William Ruto, and Australian Communication Minister Michelle Rowland commented on the unveiling of the Umoja route. 

Meanwhile, Liquid Intelligent Technologies founder and chairman Strive Masiyiwa said that the eastern African countries where the cable would run would be more connected than ever, saying that their major cities would become "stations on a data superhighway."

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