Wedoany.com Report-Nov. 13, Google has completed the landing of the Tabua subsea cable in Maroochydore, Queensland, as part of its South Pacific Connect initiative. Named after a sacred Fijian whale’s tooth, Tabua works alongside the Honomoana cable, linking the U.S. and Australia to French Polynesia, to provide enhanced connectivity across the South Pacific.
The initiative includes physically diverse cable landing stations in Fiji and French Polynesia, interconnected to form a resilient ring linking Australia, Fiji, and French Polynesia. In April 2024, Google announced plans to extend Tabua to Hawaii and build the Taihei subsea cable connecting Hawaii to Japan. Together, Tabua, Taihei, and Honomoana will create an integrated network connecting the U.S., Australia, and Asia.
The Tabua cable system is privately owned and operated by Starfish Infrastructure Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Google LLC. It comprises sixteen fibre pairs, each delivering approximately 17 Tbps, providing a total system capacity of 272 Tbps. The transpacific trunk spans 13,323 kilometres from Los Angeles, California, to New South Wales, Australia, with branching segments to Oahu, Suva, Natadola, and Queensland.
Tabua is the first subsea system from the continental U.S. to feature dual landings in both Australia and Fiji, on the east and west sides of Viti Levu. This design ensures path diversity and redundancy in case of a branch failure, while supporting single-end power source capability for improved resilience and operational reliability.
Vocus was chosen as Google’s partner to deliver the system and operates a portfolio of submarine cables linking northern and western Australia to key Asian markets. The Tabua cable connects directly into Vocus’ 50,000-kilometre national fibre network. Andrés Irlando, CEO of Vocus Group, said: “Google’s Tabua subsea cable made landfall today in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, linking into Vocus’ 50,000 km national fibre network. Tabua is part of Google’s Australia Connect cable system, running from the US to Australia via the Pacific. Together with Google, Sunshine Coast Council, and NEXTDC, we’re expanding capacity and strengthening the resilience of international connectivity and putting Australia at the heart of a new digital infrastructure route between the US and Asia.”
The project underscores the growing importance of resilient digital infrastructure in the region, supporting high-capacity, low-latency communications between the U.S., Australia, and Asia. The landing of Tabua will enhance internet performance, support cloud services, and strengthen the South Pacific’s connectivity to global markets.
The completion of Tabua’s landing is a key milestone in Google’s strategy to create a robust and redundant subsea network, complementing existing infrastructure and enabling future expansions across the Pacific. It demonstrates collaboration between global technology firms, local authorities, and network operators to advance digital connectivity in the region.
