A consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra have marked a milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the landing of the INDIGO Central subsea cable at Coogee Beach in Sydney.
Installation of the INDIGO Central cable is due to complete early December and once in service, it will provide a new subsea communications link between Sydney and Perth.
This announcement follows the recent landing of the INDIGO WEST cable from Singapore to Perth and the start of INDIGO Central marine installation from Perth, both announced in September.
The INDIGO West and Central subsea cables are designed to complement each other and when adjoined, they’ll provide Australia’s first and only direct optical path connecting Sydney to Singapore, AARNet noted.
The 9,200km INDIGO cable system, comprising INDIGO West and INDIGO Central, will be able to support up to 36 terabits per second.
Drew Kelton, chief executive officer, Superloop on behalf of SubPartners, said: “We’re on a journey to interconnect and virtualise businesses across the Asia Pacific region, and the go-live of INDIGO will accelerate that plan significantly.”
AARNet’s CEO Chris Hancock said: “This is a significant milestone for the INDIGO project and a great leap forward for research and education in Australia. The first trans-Australian submarine cable will provide a critical diverse express path between Sydney and Perth to support the huge data transfer demands of the Pawsey Centre, NCI, and the significant growth in data-intensive collaborative research for all researchers across the country.”
Singtel’s vice president, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat added: “The landing of INDIGO Central cable by Optus is a landmark development which will boost Australia’s communications ecosystem with much-needed high-speed capacity and network diversity. Together with INDIGO West, the next generation INDIGO Central data superhighway will enhance Singtel and Optus’ subsea networks, creating a cable ring connecting Australia to Singapore, through Southeast Asia, across the Pacific and back to Australia.”
INDIGO cable system will be ready for service by mid-2019.