$100M Vocus cable splashes down in Indian Ocean

Vocus, Australia’s specialist fibre and network solutions provider, has begun the rollout of the final $100M segment of its Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system.

The new 1,000km cable, with capacity of up to 40Tbps, will form the final link in Vocus’ Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system (DJSC), a $500m ecosystem of cables connecting Darwin, Port Hedland, Perth, Christmas Island, Jakarta, and Singapore – unlocking Darwin as a major new data hub for the Asia-Pacific.

Specifically, the cable will link Vocus’ existing Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) that runs from Perth to Singapore via Christmas Island and Jakarta, and the North-West Cable System (NWCS) running between Darwin and Port Hedland. 

Once complete, the DJSC system will also interconnect with Project Horizon, Vocus’ forthcoming 2,000km terrestrial fibre connection from Port Hedland to Perth, creating a massive new onshore/offshore network loop for improved resilience and redundancy.

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) is constructing the cable for Vocus. Optic Marine’s cable laying vessel Ile de Re is laying the cable off the coast of Port Hedland and will navigate to the ASC in the Indian Ocean to connect into it before the expected go-live date of mid-2023. 

First international connectivity to Darwin

The new cable segment will provide Darwin with its first direct international fibre link by mid-2023, providing ultrafast, low-latency bandwidth to Singapore and Jakarta. 

It also adds additional redundancy to Vocus’ network, protecting customers on the ASC against potential outages on the southern section of the cable, and providing users of the upcoming Project Horizon cable through the Pilbara with a secondary international connection. 

Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney said the project had been years in the making. “The completion of our Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system will open up new possibilities for the north-west of Australia, providing direct international connectivity into Darwin as an alternative route to Perth or the east coast of Australia.”

“Organisations in Australia’s north-west that send traffic over the DJSC will benefit from high performance connectivity to regional head offices in Asia, and secure, low-latency access to cloud applications,” Ms Sweeney said. “We have seen immediate interest from customers, particularly those in the resources sector,” she added. 

Newest cable technology

The armoured four-fibre-pair cable receives energy from shore and uses 14 active network repeaters to maintain signal strength across the segment. It uses the latest dense wavelength-division multiplexing fibre technology, allowing for future capacity upgrades.

An innovative optical switch on the seabed will allow Vocus’ network operation team to remotely balance and optimise the amount of optical wavelength available for different routes on the cable. This enhancement is an improvement on most previous cable systems which were built with fixed optical allocation for each destination.

Land, sea, and space infrastructure investment 

The cable rollout is part of Vocus’ $1 billion five-year infrastructure investment strategy, which includes capacity upgrades to the company’s existing network and the deployment of substantial new fibre infrastructure – including the $150 million, 2,000km Project Horizon terrestrial fibre cable from Perth to Port Hedland in the north-west of Australia.

It also follows the company’s launch of Vocus Satellite – Starlink in December, after Vocus signed an agreement to offer the advanced low earth orbit satellite (LEO) services to enterprise and government customers across Australia. 

Vocus earlier this month announced it would be acquiring its long term partner Challenge Networks, a global leader in deploying private LTE and 5G networks. 

ENDS

For further information, please contact Dan Warne on 0421 027 293, dan.warne@vocus.com.au

Vocus, Australia’s specialist fibre and network solutions provider, owns and operates c. 25,000km of secure, high-capacity fibre connecting all Australian mainland capitals with New Zealand, Asia, and the USA. Vocus’ network includes the 4,600km Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) from Perth to Singapore via Indonesia and the 2,100km North-West Cable System (NWCS) from Port Hedland to Darwin connecting offshore oil and gas facilities. Vocus owns a portfolio of well recognised brands catering to enterprise, government, wholesale, small business and residential customers across Australia.

PHOTOS

On deck in the Indian Ocean with Vocus’ new $100M submarine cable

As the sun rises over the horizon, the crew of cable ship Ile De Re are already hard at work, prepping for the day’s mission: starting the rollout of a $100M submarine fibre optic cable for Australia’s specialist fibre and network solutions provider Vocus.

They’re about to embark on the task of recovering an existing fibre cable laid seven years ago off the coast of Port Hedland, WA, to join it to a new 1,000KM cable being transported on the ship. 

The specialist team lowers a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to the seabed, receiving a live visual feed on the deck. They confirm the identity of the cable, pick it up underwater and raise it to deck, complete with barnacles and seaweed streaming off it. 

With the cable now in hand, the crew analyses it to ensure it’s still completely watertight inside. To their relief, it is – the cable-end seal has held well. The submarine fibre optic specialists cut into and then strip back the multiple armoured layers to reveal the hair-thin fibre optic cable inside.

The crew splices the fibre optic cable to the end of the new cable being transported in the hull of the vessel. Hours later, after carefully rebuilding the armoured seal around the cable joint and applying a strong metal capsule around the joined ends, it’s time for the cable lay to begin. The crew starts spooling the cable off the ship and onto the seabed. 

Once the crew is confident the ship is well clear of any other existing cable systems, it starts ploughing, burying the new cable 1m deep. This provides extra protection against wayward ships’ anchors that might damage the infrastructure in the years ahead. 

The vessel now continues its 1,000KM course to the Australia Singapore Cable, laying at depths of up to 2.5KM. 

Here, the new cable will be joined to an existing underwater branching unit, forming the new link that will bring the North-West Cable System and Australia Singapore Cable. 

Together, the cables will form the final section of the $500M Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system connecting Perth, Darwin, Port Hedland, Christmas Island, Indonesia, and Singapore, due for completion mid-2023. It will provide the first direct international connection out of Darwin – unlocking it as a major new data hub for the Asia-Pacific.

Filename: 1 - Vocus - Optic Marine submarine cable laying vessel Ile de Re.jpg

Caption: Vocus’ new $100M cable on the move in Optic Marine’s cable laying vessel Ile de Re, commissioned by Alcatel Submarine Networks who Vocus have commissioned to build the cable. Image: Vocus/Salty Davenport.

Filename: 2 - Remote Operated Underwater Vehicle being lowered to pick up cable end.jpg

Caption: The remotely operated underwater vehicle lowered off the side of the cable ship Ile de Re to the seabed to pick up Vocus’ existing fibre optic cable laid seven years ago. Image: Vocus/Peter Barr. 

Filename: 3 - That's what millions of dollars worth of cable looks like.jpg

Caption: That’s what millions of dollars worth of armoured fibre optic submarine cable looks like before it’s laid out on the seabed. Crew member included for scale! Image: Vocus/Salty Davenport.

Filename: 4 - Cable drums used to control tension as we pay out the cable.jpg

Caption: The giant rotating cable drums on the Ile de Re used to dispense the cable from the ship while maintaining the right tension on the cable. Image: Vocus/Salty Davenport.

Filename: 5 - The plough used to bury the cable 1M under the seabed.jpg

Caption: The plough used to bury the cable a metre under the seabed. The plough blade is the brown part on the centre left of the machine, and the fibre optic cable is the black and white striped line running from right to left. Image: Vocus/Peter Barr

Filename: 6 Vocus-Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore-Cable-System-Map.jpg

Caption: Vocus’ new $100M cable segment will form a 1000km link between the existing Australia-Singapore Cable and the North-West Cable System. The overall Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore system will be 7,700KM long and provide the first direct international connectivity out of Darwin. It’s due for completion in mid-2023.