Vocus Commences Laying the Darwin, Australia Segment of DJSC Subsea Cable
By Georgia Butler, DatacenterDynamics
March 1, 2023
Australian telco Vocus Networks has begun laying the Darwin, Australia, segment of its Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC) subsea cable.
This is the last AU$100 million (US$67.9m) segment of the DJSC and will see Darwin connected to South-East Asia.
Being laid by the Ile de Re cable ship owned by Alcatel Submarine Networks, DJSC will have a maximum capacity of 40Tbps, have 14 repeaters, use dense wavelength division multiplexing, and have a submarine optical switch.
While an optical switch is an unusual addition, Vocus said that it will enable teams to “remotely balance and optimize the amount of optical wavelength available for different routes on the cable.”
Ellie Sweeney, Vocus CEO as of February 2023, said: “The completion of our Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system will open up new possibilities for the north-west of Australia, providing direct international connectivity into Darwin as an alternative route to Perth or the east coast of Australia.”
Plans for the segment were first announced in August 2021.
The cable is due to go live by mid-2023 and will, once completed, connect Darwin to Vocus’ Australia Singapore Cable linking Perth and Singapore via Christmas Island and Jakarta. It will also see Darwin lined to the North-West Cable System to Port Hedland in Western Australia.
