INDIGO West Cable Lands at Perth Beach
By George Nott, CIO Australia
September 19, 2018
By George Nott, CIO AustraliaWork on the first section of the INDIGO West subsea cable is now complete, after it landed today at Floreat Beach in Perth.
The 2400km cable runs from Christmas Island to Perth. Work on the second section of the cable, which will connect Singapore and Indonesia, will start this month and be complete in December.
The cable system – previously known as APX West – has been built by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), backed by a consortium of partners; namely AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra.
The ASN cable ship, the Ile de Brehat, is now preparing to lay the INDIGO Central cable, which will traverse 4,600 kms between Perth and Sydney.
It will strengthen links between Australia and South East Asian markets, Telstra said today, providing lower latency and enhanced reliability.
“Using today’s coherent optical technology, the cable’s two-fibre pairs will be able to support up to 36 terabits per second, the equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a second,” the telco said.
“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,” it added.
The INDIGO cable system – covering 9,200km – is expected to be operational by the middle of next year.
“The development of the INDIGO West cable has leveraged Telstra’s engineering expertise and the scale of our Australian network. The cable will connect to Telstra’s extensive terrestrial network to provide onward connectivity around Australia. Once complete, the cable system will strengthen links between Australia and fast-growing South East Asian markets by providing the fastest speeds and dramatically improved reliability,” said Paul Abfalter, Telstra’s head of North Asia and global wholesale.
