The NT’s 1000km Vocus cable rollout begins off WA coast
The new Vocus fibre cable roll-out connecting the NT’s internet with the rest of the world has started. See how the extraordinary project will be done.
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Work has begun rolling out Vocus’ 1000km, $100m Indian Ocean to Port Hedland fibre cable link that will complete the long-awaited Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable project.
The new cable will connect the North West Cable System – which links Port Hedland with Darwin – to the Australia-Singapore Cable out of Perth in the Indian Ocean, about 1000km from the Port Hedland coast.
It is the final stage of the $500m Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable roll-out and has the support of the local IT sector.
The new segment will connect Port Hedland with Darwin via the North West Cable System at the existing domestic fibre optic terminal at Mindil Beach.
It is hoped it will be the start of a new fibre-optic data hub in Darwin.
The new cable will interconnect with the 4600km Australian-Singapore Cable between Perth and Singapore and the 2100km North West Cable System between Port Hedland and Darwin.
Working off the Western Australian coast on Wednesday, a Vocus statement said a remotely operated underwater vehicle on board the Indonesian-registered vessel Ile De Re lifted the existing fibre cable from the ocean floor “complete with barnacles and seaweed” near Port Hedland onto the deck.
Submarine-cable specialists on-board the Ile De Re then spliced the new 1000km fibre cable to the existing North West Cable System, to be eventually joined with the Australia-Singapore Cable.
After rebuilding the armoured seal around the cable joint and applying a sealed metal capsule at the joined end, the Vocus team started spooling the cable from the ship onto the seabed where the remote operated underwater vehicle began burying the 1000km journey burying the cable 1m below the ocean floor.
Vocus’ statement said the $100m cable rollout will be the first direct international internet connection out of Darwin.
“The vessel now continues its 1000km course to the Australia Singapore Cable, laying at depths of up to 2.5km,” the statement said.
“Here, the new cable will be joined to an existing underwater branching unit, forming the new link that will (unite) 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.”
Years in the planning, the DJSC is expected to deliver 40 terabits per second of internet capacity between Australia and Asia and is the final stage in a number of major infrastructure builds by Vocus in Australia’s north and west.
Work is expected to be complete by the middle of 2023.
Damien Charles, NT regional manager at the Australian Computer Society, said the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable will bring individual and economy-wide benefits.
“Along with the benefit of growing the Territory’s technology base and demand for IT workers, there’s potentially business opportunities for Darwin based entrepreneurs as the cable will offer lower latency times with East Asia than the rest of Australia,” he said.
“It helps to position Darwin to be the next hub for Data Centres in our region as well as being good news for local gamers.
“On it’s own, the cable is good news but it’s only part of the picture of building a thriving local tech community. We’re working with the NT government, Charles Darwin University and local tech leaders to grow the local digital community and get more jobs and business for Territorians.”
The NT government has been promoting the Top End as a potential new data hub.
As well as the Vocus project, in 2021 this publication reported Western Australian tech company Fibre Expressway planned to construct a 10,000km subsea fibre-optic cable linking Perth, Darwin and Asia.
As well, Melbourne tech company Inligo Networks announced a new $700m subsea cable linking Australia, Asia and the United States will connect in Darwin.
In early 2022 New Zealand company Hawaiki Submarine Cable Ltd announced a new trans-Pacific circuit system connecting Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and the United States with a spur cable connecting to Darwin.
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