Google Invests in $300M Submarine Cable to Improve Connection Between Japan, US • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Invests in $300M Submarine Cable to Improve Connection Between Japan, US

#71

Post by ripdog » Wed, Aug 13, 2014, 12:13 AM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #58

I would love to see Google do this for Australia and New Zealand as well. Both countries are at the end of the line (so-to-speak) and would benefit greatly from something like this. Our Internet is pretty rubbish and expensive, and while that might be in part due to limited choice of ISP's, archaic Government policies and equipment, bandwidth is a HUGE problem.

Australia yes, but please don't include New Zealand in that! Our internet is roaring along thanks to enlightened regulation and significant government investment. We're half-way through rolling out a GPON fibre network which will cover 75% of the population by 2019. I'm on 100/50mbit fibre right now, looking forward to a 1000/500 upgrade before the end of the year - totally uncapped and unshaped.

Re: Google Invests in $300M Submarine Cable to Improve Connection Between Japan, US

#72

Post by ripdog » Wed, Aug 13, 2014, 12:17 AM UTC

rasz_pl wrote: post #37

joshfraser wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cables are pretty limited in both number and capacity. Just compare Australia with Japan for example: http://www.cablemap.info/

Poor inter continental connections dont explain data caps INSIDE their uber fiber national network, do they?

No, those are explained by the average consumer not having a clue whether website X is national or international. Seperate billing has been tried in some places, AFAIK always abandoned because it confused customers and made them feel like they were getting screwed over.

Re: Google Invests in $300M Submarine Cable to Improve Connection Between Japan, US

#73

Post by BillFranklin » Thu, Aug 14, 2014, 1:57 AM UTC

teek wrote: post #51

BillFranklin wrote: post #16

Anyone want to take a guess at Google's motive (other than goodwill)? Better access to East Asian customers?

I've been living in Japan and access across the pond is a bit flaky at times. Most of the time I can blame my local service provider (a sharehouse) for their piece of shit router, but there are countless numbers of times when a stream will suddenly cut or a connection will just time out for no good reason (while other simultaneous connections even across the ocean are fine).

Ah, thanks for the background info.

Re: Google Invests in $300M Submarine Cable to Improve Connection Between Japan, US

#74

Post by maxmcd » Sat, Aug 23, 2014, 12:19 AM UTC

stephen_g wrote: post #67

maxmcd wrote: post #41

This might be an absurd question, but I can't think of a better place to ask it. In my mind there's a huge mental disconnect between computers (servers/personal computers) and infrastructure like this. Could someone provide insight on when/how these types of high-throughput cables are used? How the process is managed, by who, and how on earth all those bits are lined up at such a high speed. I understand they're core…

Routers. Routers everywhere... The internet is broken up into different networks, each one being an 'Atonomous System' (AS). These networks are all connected to other ASes at various interconnection points, such as an Internet Exchange (IX) or another point-of-presence (PoP). At these points, a router on the edge of one network is connected to a router on the edge of another. These 'edge' or 'border' routers talk to…

This is fascinating. Thank you.