AUSTRALIA’S FIRST EXPRESS CABLE TO EMEA HAS LANDED IN PERTH - ON TRACK TO GO LIVE IN Q2-2022.
Brisbane, Australia 22nd July, 2021 – SUB.CO today announced Australia’s first express undersea cable to EMEA, the Oman Australia Cable (OAC) has made landfall in Perth, Australia. The cable landing from the Cable Ship Reliance, marks a major milestone in providing Australia with diverse and direct connectivity to EMEA.
SUB.CO’s Founder Bevan Slattery said “I am so excited, and somewhat relieved, to see OAC making landfall in Perth. This moment has been a long time in the making and made all the more challenging with COVID and for me personally represents another important piece of the puzzle to improve Australia’s digital resiliency.”
Today over 95% of Australia’s international connectivity is provided by undersea cables and, while the number of cables have increased to provide additional capacity, they often follow similar routes and are exposed to the same single points of failure.
Mr Slattery said “Currently, every submarine cable that connects Europe/Middle East to Asia goes through a single 100 mile stretch of water in the Malacca Strait that is also one of the most earthquake prone, most fished, most active shipping areas in the world. It is the Suez Canal of the Cloud.
“Additionally every cable out of the west of Australia all follow the same path and have the same single points of failure being they all travel through the Sunda Strait and land in Singapore. OAC will change all that.”
The Cable Ship Reliance will remain on station while the cable is extended through to the cable landing station and tested before continuing installation. The next major milestone will see the cable land into Cocos (Keeling) Islands in Q4 2021, marking the first undersea cable to land in the remote Australian territory in almost 100 years.
SUB.CO CEO Jim Clarke said “The SUB.CO team have been busy in the background completing construction of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands beach manhole and fronthaul networks with the containerised cable landing station about to be shipped to Island for commissioning in readiness for the arrival of the cable ship.
The final stage will commence post Cocos (Keeling) Islands landing and continue installation all the way to Oman with final splice anticipated in Q1 2022 and ready for service Q2 2022.
ABOUT SUB.CO
Founded by industry veteran Bevan Slattery, Sub.co is a specialist consulting and investment company focusing on assisting the development of submarine cable projects and potentially investing in specialist projects alongside infrastructure investment partners.
Previous projects undertaken by the management team include Sydney to Guam Cable (PPC-1), Sydney to Los Angeles (Endeavour & AAG), Singapore to Perth Cable (Indigo West) and Australia’s first transcontinental fibre optic submarine cable (Indigo Central).
