The first section new subsea cable that will connect Australia’s west coast to Singapore has landed at Floreat Beach in Perth.
The 4600km INDIGO West cable will stretch from Singapore to Perth, via Jakarta. From Perth, the 4850km INDIGO Central will run through to Sydney.
The first 2400km INDIGO West segment runs from Perth to Christmas Island.
The cable is being laid by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). Cable ship Ile de Brehat will now begin laying the INDIGO Central cable through to Sydney.
The Singapore to Indonesia portion of the cable system is expected to be completed by the end of December.
The cable system has two fibre pairs and an initial total capacity of around 36 terabits per second.
The cable is backed by a consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners (owned by Superloop) and Telstra.
The cable system, which is expected to be ready for service in mid-2019, has an “open cable” design that supports spectrum sharing, which the consortium says will allow each member to “to independently take advantage of technology advancements for future upgrades and capacity increases on demand.”
Earlier this month Vocus’ Australia Singapore Cable was declared ready for service. The US$170 million, 4600km cable system has four fibre pairs was completed in July.
Vocus pressed the cable into service earlier than expected after a major outage hit the aging the Sea-Me-We3 (SMW-3) system, which also stretches from Perth to Singapore.
Vocus revealed yesterday that a cable ship was expected to arrive at the site of the SMW-3 fault on 22 September. Cable repair is expected to be completed on 25 September, subject to sea and weather conditions, Vocus said.