Orange teams up with Google on Dunant transatlantic cable

[October 12, 2018]  (Reuters) - Orange and Google have forged a partnership to work on the Dunant transatlantic submarine cable project connecting France and the United States, the French telecoms operator said on Friday.

The logo of French telecom operator Orange is pictured during the Viva Tech start-up and technology summit in Paris, France, May 25, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Announced by Google in July, Dunant will be the first new submarine cable connecting the United States to France in more than 15 years and is a response to rapidly increasing demand for connectivity across the Atlantic.

"Thanks to this partnership, Orange will be in a stronger position to support the development of new uses for its consumer and enterprise customers in Europe and America," it said in a statement.

The 6,600 km cable is scheduled to come into service in 2020 and Orange said that it would build and operate the landing station on the French Atlantic coast and provide land links.

The Dunant cable is part of a wave of infrastructure investments by Google. These include the Curie project, its first private intercontinental cable, connecting Chile to Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish in Gdynia; Editing by David Goodman)

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