Vocus completes final splice of Coral Sea Cable System

Final splice heading overboard the Ile de Brehat

Vocus has completed the final splice of the Coral Sea Cable System which is set to improve connectivity between Australia, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

The work was carried out aboard cable laying vessel Ile de Brehat, at a point approximately 180km offshore Sydney. The connected cable was then laid on the sea floor at a depth of 4,865 metres.

This follows the the landing of the Coral Sea Cable System at Sydney’s Tamarama Beach on 28 August.

In its financial year report, Vocus stated that the project was tracking on time and on budget and the main cable lay is due to be completed in October, which will be followed by a period of configuration and testing.

“The final splice on a subsea cable project is critically important and it’s exciting to have reached another key milestone”, Vocus chief executive, enterprise and government Andrew Wildblood said.

“We’re very proud of the technical work our team continues to deliver for the Australian Government,” he said.

In June 2018, the Australian Government awarded a $136.6 million contract to Vocus to build the international sub-marine cable between Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Australia. The contract was later amended to $138.7 million.

The landing points are Port Moresby the capital of Papua New Guinea, Honiara the capital of the Solomon Islands and in Sydney.

At the time, Vocus had also been assigned the construction of a domestic sub-marine network within Solomon Islands, to extend the benefits of the cable beyond Honiara to the outer provinces where the majority of the Solomon Islands population lives.

The next step on the project will see the Ile de Brehat head to Honiara to commence laying the Solomon Islands Domestic Network – a 730km fibre optic cable system linking Honiara with the key provincial hubs of Auki, Noro and Taro.

Both the Coral Sea Cable System and the Solomon Islands Domestic Network are on track to be ready for service by December 2019, according to the publicly-listed telco provider.