A manhole cover in Seattle’s University District marks one of the access points for the Seattle's existing fiber-optic network, which was to be leveraged by Gigabit Squared to provide high-speed Internet to homes and businesses in the city. That partnership fell apart in December.

Microsoft said today it has invested in three new deep-water cables designed to deliver data at higher speeds and greater capacity around the globe.

Two of the new cables will connect North America to Ireland and the United Kingdom across the Atlantic Ocean. The third will create a crucial link from North America to Asia across the Pacific Ocean. It did not disclose how much it was spending on either project.

The investments are part of a push that Microsoft started making nine months ago to invest more significantly in what is technically referred to as “subsea” communications. As Microsoft continues to invest in cloud-based software, such as its Azure data services and Office 365, the company says its ability to connect customers to their data worldwide becomes more important.

The cables to the United Kingdom will be done in partnership with two companies: Hibernia and Aqua Comms. That route will physical land in Halifax, Canada, Ballinspittle, Ireland and Brean, UK and link together several Microsoft data centers via cable.

AEC-OverviewMap
AEC-OverviewMap

The Asian route is being done in conjunction with a consortium of companies, including Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan; China Mobile China Telecom; China Unicom; KT Corporation; SoftBank Mobile; and TE SubCom. The New Cross Pacific Cable Network, as it has been named, will link together Hillsboro, Ore. with China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

The announcement was made today by David Crowley, Microsoft’s Managing director of network enablement, in a blog post.

“Competition in the cloud and infrastructure space continues to heat up. But it’s not a battle that will be won on just cloud or infrastructure alone, but instead on holistic innovation and providing value to customers from the ‘sea to the sky’,” Crowley said.

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