A GLOBAL OUTLOOK AS PROJECT ‘KOETE’ CONTINUES TO GO ‘BEYOND’

A First Of Its Kind US$1.5 Bn Technology Ecosystem Being Developed

By Peter Bannister & Gary Kennedy
January 25, 2021

In line with Forum Magazine’s theme of ‘Global Outlook’ let us tell you a little about Perth in Western Australia where we live and work and develop Project Koete (Koete being a Japanese word that means ‘To Go Beyond’).

Perth is the most geographically isolated capital city in the world and yet ‘right next door’ to the Asia and the Pacific region which is home to 4.1 billion people, or two thirds of the world’s population and Perth is geographically closer to Asia Pacific than Sydney or Melbourne.

Perth is known as the City of Lights – so called by the US astronaut Captain John Glenn who flew over Western Australia in 1962 in his spacecraft and again in 1998 in a space shuttle and all the residents of the city and surrounding suburbs turned on their lights to acknowledge his achievement.

Western Australia has an export-oriented economy, with almost half of Australia's annual exports of goods originating from the state including minerals, petroleum, agri-food and specialised manufactured goods. The state also attracts many international visitors and students each year. These export industries support employment across the Western Australian economy

Perth is also the operational home base for Project Koete that reticulates along the coastline between the West and Northern territories of Australia and heads up through Asia Pac to Kuantan in Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore.  In those locations we work with partners to take us globally – both in the DC and Subsea cable space.

Project Koete’s subsea cable system also provides onshore connectivity via BU’s and CLS onto the coastline between Perth and Darwin where the big Minerals and Resources projects reside.

Project Koete also reticulates the offshore waters where the big Oil & Gas entities play and the FLNG market resides.  Digitalisation of those Oilfields is expected to generate US$30Bn

‘Koete’ is a Japanese word that literally means ‘to go beyond’ and that is exactly what the project aims to achieve as FEPL continues to develop a first of its kind US$1.5 Bn technology ecosystem based in the Western and Northern territories of Australia that offer a secure and stable political climate and a skilled workforce. It is fast becoming an attractive location for global data solutions.

The ecosystem includes three Tier IV Modular data centres hubs in Perth, Darwin and Dampier connected via a paired 8,000-kilometre, carrier neutral, high speed, low latency subsea cable includes seven cable landing stations between Perth and Darwin.

The ecosystem will transform the Western and Northern territories into global digital hubs and bring new business verticals and revenue opportunities and jobs to the region. Project Koete will provide vital offshore and onshore data and internet connectivity domestically between Perth and Darwin, while directly connecting the cities to international business hubs in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and to business hubs in Asia Pacific and ‘beyond’ to global markets.

 

To continue reading the rest of this article, please read it in Issue 116 of the SubTel Forum Magazine on page 41 or on our archive site here.