Indigo Subsea Cable Completes Sydney Landing

By Corinne Reichert, ZDNet
October 29, 2018

The Indigo subsea telecommunications cable has completed its landing at Coogee Beach in Sydney, the consortium building the system has announced, with the Central cable to be installed by early December.

According to SubParters, the submarine cable's construction remains on track, and will see the 36Tbps system go live in mid-2019.

“The Indigo cable system will utilise new spectrum sharing technology so each consortium member will have the ability to independently take advantage of technology advancements for future upgrades and capacity increases on demand,” the consortium said.

Being built by Telstra, SubPartners, Google, Singtel, AARNet, Indosat Ooredoo, and Alcatel Submarine Networks, the Indigo cable will span around 9,000km, connecting Sydney, Perth, Singapore, and Jakarta. It has two fibre pairs.

“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,” Singtel's vice president of Carrier Services for Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat said.

“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.”

Telstra last month announced the completion of the landing of Indigo West at Floreat Beach, Perth, with the 2,400km cable segment between Christmas Island and Perth having been laid.

Superloop had in August announced completing the marine survey, cable system manufacturing and factory testing for both Indigo West and Indigo Central, the drilling phase in Sydney for the landing of two subsea cables, installation of the beach manhole in Sydney for Indigo Central, and an agreement to provide its second landing facility to Southern Cross.

The Indigo Central final splice is expected to be complete in early December, and the Indigo West final splice in late December.