The INDIGO consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra announced on May 30^th that the INDIGO subsea cable system is ready for use. The INDIGO cable consists of two fiber pairs, with a design capacity of around 36 Tbps. 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.

The INDIGO cable includes two distinct systems, the Indigo West of 4600km connecting Singapore to Perth via Jakarta, and the Indigo Central of 4600km connecting Perth to Sydney. the INDIGO cable system will strengthen connectivity between Australia and the fast-growing Southeast Asian markets, providing lower latency and more reliable communication services. Using current coherent optical technology, the cable can support up to 36 Tbps.

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 completion of the INDIGO cable system is timely as Asia’s economy is increasingly being driven by digital connectivity. In fact, bandwidth demand between Asia and Australia will reach 75Tbps by 2025 according to TeleGeography and the INDIGO subsea cable system will help meet the exponentially growing demand for direct connectivity between Singapore and Australia.

As another four-fiber-pair and 40Tbps ASC cable owned by Vocus Communications has been ready for service since September 2018, there is now available for high capacity and redundant connectivity between Singapore and Australia. 

Source: Telstra