I can’t stand the name—Unity—but I recognize its worth. Kinda.
Six international companies have signed up to create a new Trans-Pacific Internet fiber optic cable that may (the numbers aren’t finalized yet) increase the bandwidth capacity by 7.68 Terabits/s. The companies, of which Google is most recognizable ’round these parts, said that with the expected increases in Trans-Pacific Internet traffic, such a cable is a necessity.
Construction starts right now! and it’s expected to be completed by 2010 for the cool price of $300 million. Physically it links Los Angeles to Chikura, which is just outside of Tokyo.
One quick thought I had: how often do you, average American Internet user, connect to Asian servers? Unless YouTube or Wikipedia has servers there, it does seem weird to me to suggest all this Trans-Pacific Internet activity when I’m mainly browsing CNN and Drudge and other U.S.-based sites. Some guy brought this up in The Economist last year, too, so I’m not the only one thinking like that.
Presser [Google]
Those of us who work for companies with Asian subsidiaries (i.e. all of us but you) connect to services in Asia all the time via the Internet. Its this thing called “site to site” vpn tunnels. Look it up.
Asian porn, duh
the upgrade is not intended only for US users to connect to ASIA but also for asian users to connect to US. someone with a very pathetic statement like yours (”how often do you, average American Internet user, connect to Asian servers?”) only proved nothing but pure ignorance about how the Internet works. pitty you….