Australian businesses on the east coast just got a step closer to quickly and easily accessing international markets in the Asia Pacific region this week as the manufacturing of new sub-sea cable infrastructure was completed in France.
RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI) announced that construction of the Japan-Guam-Australia South Cable System (JGA South), the cable between Guam and Sydney with a branch to the Sunshine Coast, is on schedule and will be commercially available by the end of 2019.
JGA South has an initial design capacity of 36 terabits per second (Tbps), enabling carrier-neutral data centres in Sydney to connect to the new purpose-built, also carrier-neutral, RTI-owned facility in Guam and then onwards to Los Angeles, California, via RTI's Southeast Asia-United States Cable System (SEA-US).
JGA South will also have a branch to the Sunshine Coast, which will be the first new cable ever to land on the east coast of Australia outside of Sydney. Backed by the Sunshine Coast Council, the new infrastructure will provide a major boost for local industry in Queensland.
RTI Australian Director David Yuile said when the JGA South became operational, it would provide a diverse route to the US West Coast and the fastest path to Hong Kong and Tokyo.
"Sub-sea cables are a vital link for Australia to the rest of the world for commerce and international trade," Mr Yuile said.
"JGA South will add much-needed protection and important diversity to enable faster and more direct connectivity with the all-important Asian and US markets."
The undersea cable and repeaters are being loaded onto the Ile De Brehat installation vessel at Alcatel Submarine Networks' (ASN's) factory in Calais, France before she sails to the South Pacific to begin installation.
It is expected that the installation process will commence off the coast of Sydney early in the fourth quarter of 2019.
