Subsea Cables Connecting Asia and Australia

The AJC Network (Australia Japan Cable Network) is a 12,700km submarine cable network connecting Australia, Guam and Japan, with two fiber pairs.

The AJC network was initially designed with 10 Gbps DWDM technology, with a design capacity of up to 64 waves per fibre pair over two fiber pairs. The AJC network runs through the six AJC cable landing stations, with two separate cable landing stations in each of  Japan, Australia and Guam. The AJC Network was ready for service on 30 December 2001.

The AJC network was upgraded the addition of 40G technology in mid 2012 and the addition of 100G technology in late 2013 and early 2014.  During 2018 AJC was upgraded with latest optical coherent technology to be equipped with some 5Tbps Australia-Guam-Japan. 

The Design Capacity of AJC is currently approximately 10Tbps.

The JASURAUS submarine cable system (also know as APCN Australian Extension) connects Australia (Port Hedland) with Indonesia (Jakarta), with total cable length of 2800 km and a design capacity of 5 Gbps. and brings Australia to the Asia Pacific Cable Netwoen/systems/intra-asia/apcnrk (APCN).

For more information about the JASURAUS, please refer to APCN cable system overview.

The ASSC-1 submarine cable system is a new cable connecting Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, comprises four fibre pairs and spans a distance of 4,600 km.

The ASSC-1 consists of three express fiber pairs directly linking Perth and Singpare and one omnibus fibre pair between Perth, Jakarta and Singapore.

The ASSC-1 cable system will have an initial design capacity of 6.4 Tbps, running at 40 Gbps technology, with the capability to be upgraded to 100 Gbps in the future.

The ASSC-1 cable system is scheduled to be ready for service by the end of 2013.

The INDIGO cable system spans 9200km, consists of two distinct cable projects, Indigo West of 4600km connecting Singapore to Perth via Jakarta, and Indigo Central of 4600km connecting Perth to Sydney.

The INDIGO consortium comprises AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is the system supplier.

The INDIGO cable system is designed with two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of around 36 Tbps and option to expand in the future. INDIGO cable system features new spectrum-sharing technology, each consortium member can deploy its own SLTE, upgrade their networks and enable capacity increases on demand independently.

In Australia, the INDIGO WEST lands at Floreat Beach in Perth, and the INDIGO Central lands at Coogee Beach in Sydney. The terminal equipment of INDIGO cable system is hosted at NextDC's P1, P2, S1, and S2 datacentres across Perth and Sydney.

The INDIGO cable system has been ready for service since the end of May 2019. 

Papua New Guinea is an island nation located in the South Pacific. The PNG National Submarine Cable Network is built and operated by PNG DataCo Limited, connecting 14 main cities in PNG, and with international connectivity by a link to Jayapura in Indonesia, and interconnection with PPC-1 at Madand cable landing station, onward to Guam and Sydney, Australia. 

The design capacity of the system is 8Tbps. And it is expected to be completed in 2018.

Trident Cable System is a 28 Tbps subsea cable, using 100Gbps coherent DWDM technology upgradeable to 400Gbps technology in the future, which will connect Australia, Singapore and Jakarta.

The Trident cable will have interconnection points in Equinix IBX data centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and Jakarta, as well as a landing point in Perth, providing greater connectivity for businesses, content providers and communications network providers.

The Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) Cable System comprises JGA South and JGA North, interconnecting at a new cable landing station in Piti, Guam.

JGA South and JGA North are operated as separate cable systems. JGA South is supplied by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), while JGA North is supplied by NEC Corporation.

JGA South (JGA-S) is a consortium cable. JGA South consortium includes AARNet, Google and RTI (RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. and RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd.). Spanning approxiamately 7000km, the JGA South connects Sydney and Piti in Guam with a branch to Sunshine Coast of Queensland, with an initial design capacity of 36 Tbps (2*180*100Gbps) on 2 fiber pairs. On its Sydney to Guam Main Trunk, Google owns half fiber pair (25%) , AARNet owns a quarter fiber pair (12.5%), RTI JGA owns one and a quarter fiber pairs (62.5%). RTI JGA soly owns the branch to Sunshine Coast. RTI Connectivity serves as Asset Manager of RTI JGA pursuant to an Asset Management Agreement by and between the two companies. Consequently, RTI Connectivity controls the 62.5% voting and participation interests in the Main Trunk of JGA South. JGA South is the first new cable ever to land in Sunshine Coast of Queensland, on the east coast of Australia, outside of Sydney. In Guam, the JGA South lands at the GNC Cable Landing Station. In Sydney, the JGA South lands at the Brookvale Cable Landing Station.

JGA North (JGA-N), the 2700km segment between the Minami-Boso in Japan and Piti in Guam, is a private cable of RTI, through its affiliates RTI Solutions, Inc. (“RTI Solutions”), RTI JGA Pte. Ltd. (“RTI JGA”), and RTI Connectivity Pte.Ltd. (“RTI Connectivity”). RTI Solutions serves as the landing party in Guam. RTI JGA owns 100% of the wet segment of JGA North. RTI Connectivity controls the wet segment of the JGA North in its role as Asset Manager of RTI JGA. The JGA North cable consists of two fiber pairs, with an initial design capacity of 24 Tbps (2*120*100Gpbs). The JGA-North lands at the GNC CLS and data center in Piti, Guam, adjcent to the  Piti-I CLS. The Minamiboso cable landing station for JGA North is a new cable landing station owned and controled by NTT, which is built as terminal station for NTT's Jupiter cable system. The Minamiboso cable landing station will provide additional geographical diversity for U.S.-Japan traffic currently landing at KDDI's Chikura cable landing station and SoftBank's Maruyama cable landing station.

JGA South and JGA North were ready for service in March and July 2020 respectively. 

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) is a 4,700km long fibre optic submarine cable system linking Sydney, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Honiara, Solomon Islands. The project also includes a 730km submarine cable system connecting Honiara to Auki (Malaita Island), Noro (New Georgia Island) and Taro Island.

The four fibre-pair international system delivers a minimum of 20Tbps capacity to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands respectively, a total capacity of 40Tbps. This significantly augments Papua New Guinea’s existing submarine cable capacity. The Solomon Islands currently relies solely on satellite for international voice and data communications.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• A 4,700km submarine cable system linking Sydney to Port Moresby and Honiara.
• The Solomon Islands Domestic Network is also a 730km submarine cable system connecting Honiara to Auki, Noro and Taro Islands.
• Delivering faster, cheaper and more reliable communications infrastructure.
• Bringing both countries significant economic and development opportunities.

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) is supplied and installed by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), utilising ASN's 1620 SOFTNODE Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) .

The Australian Government provides the majority funding (around two-thirds) for the Coral Sea Cable System (CS²), with PNG and Solomon Islands Governments jointly contributing up to one third of project costs. The project costs approximately AU$200m (US$144.2m). 

The CS² consortium comprises Vocus Communications, Solomon Island Submarine Cable Company, PNG DataCo Limited.

Vocus Communications was selected by the Australian Government to implement the Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) project which lands at Tamarama Beach and houses the termnial equipment at the Paddington Cable Landing Station in Sydney.

The project was originally awarded to Huawei Marine (now HMN Tech) which signed a contract with Solomon Island Submarine Cable Company in 2017.  Then, the Australian government intervened and stepped in, offering to jointly fund the construction of the cable, which the Solomons government accepted in 2018. So, Australia supplants China to build the undersea cable for Solomon Islands.

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²)  was ready for service in February 2020.

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) is a 9800km submarine cable connecting Muscat, Oman and Perth, Australia, with additional branching units designed to extend the system into Salalah, Oman and Djibouti in the future.

The OAC delivers cost-effective, reliable, low-latency (97ms) and diverse connectivity between Oman and Australia. and forms part of the only path from the US to EMEA, avoiding the Sunda Strait and the South China Sea. 

The OAC cable system consists of 3 fiber pairs, initially designed with 130*100G DWDM for a total system capacity of 39Tbps，and upgraded with Ciena GeoMesh Extreme powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme in the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to support 400Gbps waves for a total system capacity of 48Tbps in October 2023 

The OAC cable land at Equinix PE2 in Perth, Equinix MC1 in Muscat, and a clandestine landing in Diego Garcia.

The OAC cable system is owned and invested by SUB.CO, partnering with Omantel as landing partner in Oman, supplied by SubCom.

The cost of the OAC cable system is approximately US$300million. According to Reuters, the US Pentagon funds for around a third of the entire system cost to include a clandestine link to the U.S. Navy base on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. 

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) has been launched for commercial service as of October 23, 2022.

The KOETE subsea cable system is a 8,000-kilometer, carrier-neutral, high-speed low-latency subsea cable connecting with three data centre hubs in Perth, Darwin and Dampier, and seven cable landing stations (CLS) between Perth and Darwin, and onward connectivity from Perth to Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore.

The segments from Perth to Darwin and Dampier consists of 16 fibre pairs, the segments from Perth to Malaysia via Indonesia and Singapore consists of a minimum of 3 fibre pairs.

The KOETE project is developing by Fibre Expressway Pty Ltd (FEPL), an Australian company.

FEPL is building three greenfield Tier IV Data Centers in Perth, Darwin and Dampier, initially providing a combined 60 Megawatt capacity. The KOETE cable will connect the three data centers. The data centers will be critical to facilitating connectivity in Project Koete and will be built to the Tier IV Uptime Institute standard and the highest levels of security and efficiency. The initial capacity for each will be 20MW – the equivalent of power for 13,000 homes – with ample pre-built capacity and room to grow. The cable landing station (CLS) will be the primary connection point from Perth and Darwin to the subsea cable.

FEPL projected US$1.5 billion for the KOETE project, including subsea cable and data centers. The project is being primarily funded by approximately US$650 million in senior debt and US$850 million in equity.

The KOETE cable system is estimated to be ready for service in 2023.

The Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC) system is subsea cable connecting Australia (Perth, Darwin, Port Hedland, Christmas Island), Indonesia and Singapore.

The DJSC system is created by linking two existing cables: the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) to the North West Cable System (NWCS), with an addition of 1000km cable from Port Hedland to the main trunk of the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) and additional cost of AU$100million, supported by AU$7.9m contribution from the Northern Territory Government’s Terabit Territory strategy.

DJSC, ASC and NWCS are owned and operated by Australian operator Vocus. 

The DJSC system consists 4 fiber pairs, delivering 40Tbps of capacity between Australia and Asia, unlocking Darwin as a major new data hub for the Asia-Pacific and opening up the Pilbara mining region for low-latency connectivity into Singapore.

The DJSC system will interconnect with the in-progress terrestrial cable from Geraldton to Port Hedland under Vocus’ Project Horizon.

The Asia Connect Cable (ACC-1) System is new subsea cable linking Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines) with Australia (via Darwin seamlessly connecting to our Australian Terrestrial network), Timor Leste, Guam, and through to Los Angeles, California, spanning approximately 18,000 kms.

The ACC-1 system is expected to comprise 16 fibre pairs. The project is estimated to cost US$700million.

The ACC-1 system is initiated by an Australian start-up company Inligo Networks.

Inligo Networks was established in 2020 and acquired a telecommunications carrier licence from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in 2021. The licence permits Inligo Networks to build, own and operate carriage services within Australia.

Inligo Networks has partnered with SacomTel which will provide land for the ACC1 cable landing station (CLS) near Dili, the capital and largest city of Timor Leste, also known as East Timor. Inligo Networks will manage international connections for Sacomtel and East Timor, and will connect he newly established Sacomtel data centre in Dili.

Inligo Networks will land the ACC1 cable system at a new purpose built Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Darwin, directly connect several Data Centres in Darwin into the cable system. The Cable Landing Station will also provide a termination point for Inligo's domestic Unite Cable System seamlessly connecting Darwin with Adelaide and providing terrestrial connections for customers in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Asia Connect Cable, Image Credit: Inligo Networks