Rising 5,000 metres from the 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.
"You step onto the island and sometimes it feels like you've stepped back into a different time,"
Mr Jansen said.
"It was quite a surprise to hear that [Google] was coming here."
Alex Jansen says the fibre cables laid in 2019 "revolutionised" the island. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
On Monday, Google publicised the latest in a recent flurry of subsea cable projects slated to involve Christmas Island.
The TalayLink will connect two underwater cables from Perth and Darwin to southern Thailand via Christmas Island.
A week earlier, the company spruiked a trans-Indian Ocean network, dubbed Dhivaru, which it planned to string between Christmas Island, Oman, and the Maldives.
Google's planned subsea cable projects would connect Asia and North America via Christmas Island. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)
The announcements coincide with reports of a data centre proposed for the Australian territory.
Minister for Territories Kristy McBain confirmed Google is in talks with the Christmas Island shire to lease land for a "connectivity hub", which the ABC understands will be near the local airport.
Mr Jansen welcomed the investment, but not without reservation.
"It's exciting if it creates a better economy for the island, if it provides jobs, if it provides benefits to the community," Mr Jansen said.
"Labour costs here are quite more expensive [than the mainland].
"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.
"I don't think a lot of big companies take that into account."
Scarce resources
As artificial intelligence has grown more ubiquitous, so too have the data centres that train it.
Google has gone so far as to suggest building one in space.
Yet sustaining such a facility on Christmas Island could strain resources already in short supply.
Powering and cooling computer servers, for instance, demands huge amounts of water and electricity.
Christmas Island's power grid relies on diesel shipped from Australia, which it converts at an emissions-heavy generator station.
The power station on Christmas Island. (ABC Pilbara: Alistair Bates)
Phosphate Resources Limited (PRL), the island's largest employer, said the "exciting" interest from Google had bolstered calls for renewable energy sources.
PRL chief executive Nicholas Gan hopes to deliver that new infrastructure with Commonwealth support, as part of the miner's post-phosphate diversification.
The company's mining leases, and Christmas Island's economic linchpin, are expected to expire in 2034.
"We're calling for the Commonwealth to embrace renewable energy, to feed into their current power generation,"
Mr Gan said.
"If [Google are] able to come in and put some renewable energy in, which then helps them, but also helps the community, we would fully welcome that and we would absolutely work with them."
Nicholas Gan wants the federal government to embrace renewable energy on Christmas Island. (ABC Pilbara: Mietta Adams)
Scattered around Christmas Island are jagged scars of cleared jungle, permanently damaged by decades of extracting phosphate from the soil.
It is 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. (ABC Pilbara: Alistair Bates)
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.
"Connectivity hubs are often in locations where users have limited access to high quality data centres to house their services and IT hardware, such as islands," the company wrote in a statement.
"Google is exploring using its power demand to accelerate local investment in sustainable energy generation."
'Good business'
Melbourne-based telecommunications company Vocus will lay the first of Google's subsea cables, announced last year under the federal government's Australia Connect initiative.
National general manager of government projects Michael Ackland told the ABC he expects construction to commence in mid-2026.
Satellite dishes line an apartment building in the neighbourhood of Poon Saan. (ABC Pilbara: Alistair Bates)
Mr Ackland believes the new cables will improve connectivity for residents and boost Australia's cache in the rapidly growing "digital economy".
"It's good business for Australia,"
he said.
"It's very, very close to very large populations, particularly north of Christmas Island, so it does have a wonderful potential for providing digital services and transactions."
Defence interest
There is also, inevitably, a strategic dimension to the dealings.
Google's plans come off the back of a three-year cloud storage agreement signed by the Department of Defence in July.
A United States mobile rocket system visited Christmas Island for the first time as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025. (Supplied: Department of Defence)
Samuel Bashfield, a defence researcher at LaTrobe University, said Christmas Island is often positioned according to national security priorities.
"As China's ambitions grow in the region, Australia's north has an increasing strategic importance,"
Dr Bashfield said.
"Like any large organisation, the military also needs secure data connectivity to connect its forces, to connect its facilities."
However, the extent to which these decisions serve locals remains to be seen.
"Its strategic location has been used to further national interests in the past, thinking of the immigration detention centre, for example," Dr Bashfield observed.
Samuel Bashfield compared Google's data hub plans to a controversial immigration detention centre on Christmas Island. (ABC Pilbara: Alistair Bates)
One of Australia's most controversial immigration and processing facilities, the troubled Christmas Island centre was wound down in 2023 after decades of operation.
It remains in "hot contingency" state today, capable of being stood up within 72 hours.
"There's real uncertainty over some of these projects and what the benefits for locals will be," Dr Bashfield said.
