[michael dillon]
And the other cable, which Google is involved in, is connecting the USA and Australia, a country that has always had connectivity issues, especially pricing issues. This has led to a much higher use of web proxies in Australia to reduce international traffic levels and this may be the key to why, Google, an application developer and ASP/SaaS operator, is trying to build a cable link to the major English language market in Asia-Pacific.
Correcting: Google's in Sydney. Australians don't use web proxies, even though (sans google) they still save ~30% byte hit rates to decent size populations. Web proxies can be taught to cache stuff like updates and flash media (think "youtube"); and no amount of intercontinental bandwidth can fix the current issues AU ISPs face - throwing bandwidth between their aggregation point and the DSL DSLAMs in exchanges. Try again! Adrian