New subsea cable system between Australia and South East Asia – marine lay completed
AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra today announced a significant milestone in the implementation of the INDIGO subsea cable system with the completion, on schedule, of the final splicing of both the INDIGO West cable and Indigo Central cable.
This marks the completion of the marine installation of both the 4600km Singapore to Perth INDIGO West submarine cable and 4600km Perth to Sydney INDIGO Central submarine cable.
Commissioning of the submarine cable system has now began, with the INDIGO cable system on-schedule and on-track to be ready for service before mid-2019.
This milestone follows the announcement in April 2017 that the consortium had entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) to build the INDIGO cable system connecting Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit.
The 9,200km INDIGO cable system 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 equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a 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.
Telstra's Head of International Oliver Camplin-Warner said: "The INDIGO West cable will connect to Telstra's extensive terrestrial network to provide onward connectivity around Australia. Once complete, the cable system will strengthen links between Australia and fast-growing South East Asian markets by providing faster speeds and dramatically improved reliability. Our vast subsea network is a key part of our international growth strategy and we will continue to invest in additional capacity to meet the increasing demand for data and maintain our network leadership in the Asia-Pacific region."
AARNet's CEO Chris Hancock said: "This is an exciting time for AARNet. INDIGO is the first in a number of significant investments for research and education in Australia. INDIGO will provide the underpinning critical infrastructure to meet the future growth in collaborative research and transnational education between Australia and our important Asian partners."
Singtel's Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat said: "The completion of the INDIGO cable system heralds a new era of high speed communications between the growing economies of Southeast Asia and Australia. This new data superhighway will complement our existing global links to Asia, US, Europe, Australia and the Middle East, allowing Singtel and Optus to meet the growing demand for bandwidth-intensive applications which is expected to quadruple by 2025. Our investments in new subsea cable systems like INDIGO will boost our network diversity and resilience, further reinforcing our position as a leading provider of international connectivity and data services."
Drew Kelton, Chief Executive Officer, Superloop on behalf of SubPartners, said: "The demand for INDIGO is now apparent, with Superloop already signing on NextDC for access to INDIGO for both of its Perth (P1 and P2) and Sydney (S1 and S2) data centres. Superloop is on a journey to interconnect and virtualise businesses across the Asia Pacific region, and the go-live of INDIGO will accelerate that plan significantly."
Dejan Kastelic, Chief Technology and Information Officer Indosat Ooredoo said: "The completion of INDIGO submarine cable is part of our ambitious three-year program to transform our network to achieve best customer experience. When it is in service it will further diversify our international connections across Australia and fast-growing South East Asian market, serving ever-increasing demand for data traffic and expanding opportunities for retail consumers and corporate services. It also supports our vision to be leading digital telecommunication company by providing world-class data connectivity and internet access."
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