Rising 5,000 metres from teh deep sea floor, information hurtles to one of Australia’s most remote territories along a single hose-like cable.

Everything from business transactions to love letters – the torrent of internet traffic to Christmas Island is a long way from the patchy satellite signal that residents once depended on.

“With heavy rain, you’d be sitting at home without the ability to do anything, aside from maybe read a book,” recalled Alexander Jansen, one of just two internet technicians living on the territory.

“When fibre came in, that completely revolutionised it.”

But more radical change is on the horizon.

Global computing giant Google has announced plans to transform the island into a crossroads of the world’s data superhighways.

It would connect Australia to one of the planet’s largest submarine cable systems, spanning more than 42,000 kilometres from the united States to Asia.

The offshoot of a Perth-Singapore subsea cable replaced satellite communications in 2019.(ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)

Connectivity hub

Christmas Island’s isolation, located more than 1,500 kilometres off the West Australian coast, has long hamstrung its communications with the outside world.

The territory received its sole fibre-optic connection in 2019, almost a decade after the National Broadband Network (NBN) was introduced to the mainland.

Fourth generation, or 4G, mobile data only became available to most residents late last year, when telstra switched on its network.

Google eyes Christmas Island for subsea cable hub and potential data center

Google is in talks to lease land on Christmas Island to establish a “connectivity hub” as part of its planned subsea cable projects connecting Asia and North America. The announcement coincides with reports of a proposed data centre for the Australian territory.

Territories Minister Kristy McBain confirmed Google’s discussions with the Christmas Island shire, with the hub expected to be located near the local airport.

Christmas island Shire president Gordon Jansen welcomed the potential investment, expressing hope it would boost the island’s economy, create jobs, and benefit the community.Though, he cautioned that logistical challenges and higher labor costs could pose difficulties for large companies unfamiliar with operating in remote locations.

“Without the logistical knowledge and planning ahead of time,you’ll miss shipments… the construction crews that you have ready to go will have booked other jobs and everything just rolls,” Mr Jansen said. “I don’t think a lot of big companies take that into account.”

the potential data centre raises concerns about straining the island’s already scarce resources, particularly as demand for data centres grows alongside the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence. Google has even explored the possibility of building a data centre in space, highlighting the growing need for such facilities. Sustaining a large-scale operation on Christmas Island could prove challenging given existing limitations.

Scattered around Christmas Island are jagged scars of cleared jungle,permanently damaged by decades of extracting phosphate from the soil.It is indeed hoped they might one day become solar farms.

Water is harder to come by, with islanders largely reliant on above-ground rainwater capture.

The island’s limestone geology is porous, meaning water cannot gather naturally on its surface.

Untapped groundwater sources are still being assessed by WA’s Water Corporation, leaving the community vulnerable to drought.

Large swathes of jungle have been left bare by mining,but there are plans to use them for solar panelling.

According to a federal Department of infrastructure spokesperson, Google’s project is still before Water Corporation for approval.

In response to the resource concerns, Google said its connectivity hub would be smaller and require less power than a typical data centre.

Defense interest

A strategic dimension inevitably accompanies these dealings.

Google’s plans follow a three-year cloud storage agreement the Department of Defence signed in July.