Google announced that it will invest in a new fiber optic submarine cable called Umoja, which will directly connect Africa and Australia for the first time. The route will also connect several African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, providing connectivity flexibility and redundancy.
Google said Umoja means unity in Swahili, one of Africa’s important languages. The company also underlined that creating a new route is important for resilience, especially in a region experiencing high-impact outages.
In addition to the infrastructure announcement, Google also shared that it will collaborate with the Kenyan Ministry of Information Communications and the Digital Economy to support joint efforts in areas such as cybersecurity, increased data-driven innovation, digital skills development and deployment of artificial intelligence for social benefits.
One of the cybersecurity measures currently being reviewed will be Google Cloud Cybershield, which can be used to help protect the Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services eCitizen platform.
Google did not say how long it would take to complete the cable, but mentioned a $1 billion commitment it made in 2021 and said it hoped to fulfill this commitment by 2026.
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