INDIGO subsea cable system now commissioned and ready for use

• The cable can support up to 36 terabits per second
• Provides lower latency and more reliable communication services

AARNET, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra on May 30 announced that the INDIGO subsea cable system is now ready to be deployed by consortium members, following the on-schedule completion of the INDIGO West (4,600km Singapore to Perth) and INDIGO Central (4,600km Perth to Sydney) cables.

Featuring new spectrum-sharing technology, each consortium member can independently leverage on the new cable system to upgrade their networks and enable capacity increases on demand.

Spanning 9,200km, 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 terabits per second, the equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a second.

The completion of the 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.

This milestone follows the announcement in April 2017 that the consortium had made an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks to build the INDIGO cable system connecting Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit.

Telstra’s Head of International Oliver Camplin-Warner said: “The development of the INDIGO cable system strengthens the link between our Australian network and the fast-growing Southeast Asian markets and will deliver our customers faster connectivity 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 our customers’ increasing demand for data and maintain our network leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.”

AARNet’s chief executive officer Chris Hancock said: “We are looking forward to lighting up INDIGO. This cable system is providing critical underpinning infrastructure to support the future growth in collaborative data-intensive research and transnational education. INDIGO is one of several investments that will ensure that Australia and our partners in Asia have the international connectivity they need to deliver excellence in research and education for many decades to come.”

Singtel’s vice president, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise Ooi Seng Keat said: “As Southeast Asia and Australia become increasingly interconnected, a high-speed and robust connectivity infrastructure plays a critical role in catalysing the development of digital economies across the regions. The completion of INDIGO will accelerate the roll-out of next-generation technologies that rely on low latency and high-bandwidth connectivity such as high-definition video, autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things and robotics applications.

“This will bring us closer to realising the benefits of a hyper-connected future and allow us to enhance our services to Singtel and Optus customers, reinforcing our position as the leading provider of international data services in the region.”

Drew Kelton, chief executive officer, Superloop on behalf of SubPartners, said the commissioning of INDIGO West and Australia’s first transcontinental fibre optic submarine cable, INDIGO Central is a significant achievement.

“INDIGO Central complements Superloop’s metropolitan fibre networks providing high speed capacity and ubiquitous connectivity to terrestrial cable systems across Australia. When combined with the international capacity and interconnectivity to Singapore and Hong Kong, our strategy to virtualise businesses across the Asia Pacific region is now being realised.”