To build the undersea cable, Google signed a deal with SubCom, the New Jersey-based subsea cable provider. The project will be completed in 2022. GOOGL stock gained 1.4% yesterday.
Google LLC (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has announced plans to connect the U.S. and Europe by building a subsea cable with landing points in New York, Bude (the UK), and Bilbao (Spain). Named Grace Hopper, the cable will provide “better resilience for the network that underpins Google’s consumer and enterprise products.”
Google Global Network VP Bikash Koley said:
“Once commissioned, the Grace Hopper cable will be one of the first new cables to connect the U.S. and U.K. since 2003, increasing capacity on this busy global crossroads and powering Google services like Meet, Gmail and Google Cloud. It also marks our first investment in a private subsea cable route to the U.K., and our first-ever route to Spain.”
To build the cable, Google signed a deal with SubCom, the New Jersey-based subsea cable provider. The Grace Hopper cable will have 16 fiber pairs (32 fibers), which is a significant upgrade to the internet infrastructure connecting the U.S. with Europe. Besides, the novel optical fiber will allow for increased reliability in global communications, enabling better move traffic around outages. According to Google, it will complete the project in 2022.
As Google has estimated, subsea cables serve 98% of international internet traffic. Grace Hopper, named after an American computer scientist and naval rear admiral, will be Google’s fourth privately owned undersea cable. The company already has subsea cables like Curie between the US and South America, Dunant between the US and France, and Equiano between Europe and Africa.
Alphabet (GOOGL) Stock Up before Q2 Results Report
Meanwhile, the stock of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is responding positively to the news. On July 28, it closed 1.41% up, $1,529.43 per share. In the pre-market today, it is slightly down, at $1,523.00. Year-to-date, Alphabet stock is 14.19% up. Its market cap has totaled $1.03 trillion.
Alphabet stock’s price is keeping above $1500, but some believe there is plenty of room for growth. For example, the consensus target price for Alphabet given by Refinitiv remains at $1690.51.
Currently, Alphabet is preparing for the release of its Q2 earnings. Analysts are expecting the second quarter to be not as good as the first one. According to Refinitiv polls, Alphabet’s Q2 earnings per share (EPS) is expected at a weaker $8.23 compared with the $9.87 registered for Q1. As for the revenue, experts are predicting a 4.1% drop year-on-year to $37.37 billion. Net income meanwhile will be due for a steeper drop of 42.7% to $5.7 billion, according to Refinitiv consensus.
The company will release Q2 2020 earnings on July 30.
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