Government to spend $7.9 million in fibre-optic cable upgrade
THE Gunner Government has announced it will spend $7.9 million to upgrade 5700km of the Territory’s existing fibre-optic cable network and set aside 20 hecatres to build data centres.
Northern Territory
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THE Gunner Government has announced it will spend $7.9 million to upgrade 5700km of the Territory’s fibre-optic cable network, with work set to go ahead straight away.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the government will use $7.9 million from its Local Jobs Fund for a joint $18 million project with Vocus to upgrade the Territory’s existing fibre-optic cable network from 400 gigabits to 20 terabits.
Sydney telecommunications firm Vocus Group will also spend $10 million on the project.
Vocus’ general manager Michael Ackland said the upgrade will create an “express route” from Darwin to Singapore, by connecting an existing cable that goes from Darwin to Port Hedland in WA to their Australian Singapore cable.
“This will set up Darwin as a telecommunications centre for this country and South East Asia,” Mr Gunner said.
“Take Singapore. Its power resources are so stretched it is now considering putting a cap on data usage.
“Our upgrade means we are ready to join the subsea optic fibre links planned between Darwin, Singapore, Guam, California, Japan.
“We’ve got a prime location on South-East Asia’s doorstep, we’ve got the land for data centres, the energy to power them, and smart people to work in the industry.”
He said the government had set aside 20ha of land in Middle Arm to build data centres.
Mr Ackland said they expect to begin working on the upgrades straight away with a completion date set for the end of 2021.
He said they expect the project upgrade to create about 137 jobs.
“When we put this infrastructure in, it’s like a honey pot for investors,” he said.
“For both subsea cables coming in from Asia who want to connect into other parts of Australia, Darwin is so well positioned for that as well for data centre investment.
“At the moment all data centre investment is going into locations that are close to international cable landings in Sydney and Perth.
“This will create a new gateway into Australia that will attract that data centre investment.”
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