Indigo Central Cable Lands in Sydney

According to the INDIGO consortium, the INDIGO Central Cable landed at Coogee Beach in Sydney on October 29, 2018, another significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO cable system. Installation of the INDIGO Central cable is due to complete early December and once in service, it will provide a new and unique subsea communications link between Sydney and Perth. Optus, a subsidiary of Singtel, is the landing party in Sydney for the INDIGO Central Cable.

In September, the INDIGO WEST cable landed at Floreat Beach in Perth. The Indigo West Cable connects Singapore, Jakarta and Perths, spanning 4600km. 

Construction of the overall INDIGO cable system is on-track and will be ready for service by mid-2019.

The 9,200km INDIGO cable system, comprising INDIGO West and INDIGO Central, will strengthen links between Australia and the fast-growing South East Asian markets, 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 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 INDIGO consortium consists of AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra.

Drew Kelton, Chief Executive Officer, Superloop on behalf of SubPartners, said the completion of INDIGO is a significant boost to Superloop’s strategy in the Asia Pacific region to build international capacity and connectivity between its metropolitan networks. “We’re on a journey to interconnect and virtualise businesses across the Asia Pacific region, and the go-live of INDIGO will accelerate that plan significantly.”

AARNet’s CEO Chris Hancock said: “This is a significant milestone for the INDIGO project and a great leap forward for research and education in Australia. The first trans-Australian submarine cable will provide a critical diverse express path between Sydney and Perth to support the huge data transfer demands of the Pawsey Centre, NCI, and the significant growth in data-intensive collaborative research for all researchers across the country”.

Singtel’s Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat said “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. 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.”