An undersea cable that Google helped finance is almost finished, according to a new report.  Indeed, the completion of the Unity fiber optic cable, which will connect the U.S. to Japan, is supposed to be announced next week, and then Google and the company’s Asia-based users should start seeing the benefits soon after.

Quite some time ago, Google and a number of other companies announced their intent to create something called the Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC).  This week, there was confirmation that the undersea fiber optic project is progressing.

The people and businesses that rely on the SeaMeWe-4 underwater cable for Internet connections cannot be happy.  Although repairs following a December 19th incident were more or less completed on schedule, a new break has screwed things up yet again.

Something – whether a terrorist organization, careless captain, aggressive marine animal, or plain bad luck – is at it again.  Undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea have been damaged, disrupting Internet and phone connections in a large number of countries.

Something called the Southeast Asia Japan Cable (SJC) is coming into being, and Google’s one of several companies that’s behind it, according to a new report.  The new undersea fiber optic project should tie into another Google-related cable, the transpacific Unity.

Authorities in Dubai are holding two ships they believe cut undersea cables that knocked out Internet service in the Middle East and India earlier this year.

The Dubai Port Trust authorities have impounded MV Hounslow and MT Ann, according to Reliance Globalcom, which owns the cables. The authorities impounded the ships after Reliance Globalcom turned over details of the ships after examining the satellite images of the ships movements around the area of undersea cable damage.

More fodder for the conspiracy theorists—well, it’s hard to call them "theorists" when officials are making similar proposals.

The International Telecommunication Union says damage to the undersea cables that caused Internet and phone access outages all over the Middle East could have been the result of sabotage.