Google Announces New Cable Connecting Australia to Thailand: TalayLink

The American tech giant is deploying a high capacity cable directly linking Thailand to Christmas Island, which in turn will be connected by two diverse cables to Australia. The new route is unusual as it goes around Indonesia to reach Thailand's slender West Coast leg as opposed to threading the Sundra Stait and traversing the very busy waters off Singapore and up the Bay of Thailand. I told an international development bank a few weeks ago that it would make sense to do such a landing in order to avoid the crowded and congested Thailand Bay. My idea was to link India's East Coast to Thailand via its slender Southern leg. It is always a good idea to avoid routes that are already heavily used by subsea cables to improve resiliency. In this case, it also avoids ship-infested waters that pose a high risk of subsea cable damage.

This new project makes two things very clear. Google's subsea cable guys are looking to reduce their network's reliance on Singapore, which is the heart of the Southeast Asian telecom ecosystem. Only two old subsea cables land on Thailand's West Coast today: SMW3 & SMW4. So Talaylink will be the first high capacity and Tech Giant owned system. And that is the key point, physical diversity as most cables today use the Malaca Straits to reach Thailand and then up the Thailand Gulf. It is also clear that Australia will be a Pacific hub for Google's network. It will serve the same role as Ireland does for Google's European network. It will keep its space and energy intensive data centers in Australia where there is stronger rule of law than in the rest of Southeast Asia, English is the lingua franca, the US is a military ally, and the culture is Anglo-Saxon. Australia also reduces dependency on Singapore. Google pays very little tax in Australia today.

My guess is that this is a 16 fibre pair cable and that Google negotiated with the Thailand government to achieve a relatively high degree of autonomy in its operations in the country. This means they will not be joined at the hip to the Communication Authority of Thailand. Google's network ethos is control and freedom. I expect Google will work with local competitive carriers to obtain fibre up the leg to Bangkok and the Chonburi province where it is building a billion dollar cloud data centre. 

Map of Google's New TalayLink Cable

Map of Thailand's Fibre Optic Cables Landing On Its West Coast

Map of Thailand & Surrounding Countries


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