SUBCO activates Australian SMAP subsea cable
Author: Joe Peck
SUBCO, an Australian developer of undersea fibre optic cable networks, has announced that its 5,000km Sydney–Melbourne–Adelaide–Perth (SMAP) subsea cable system is now ready for service.
The company says the system is the largest transcontinental capacity upgrade in Australia for almost 25 years, connecting the country’s four largest cities through a single, fully armoured subsea cable.
SMAP comprises 16 fibre pairs and uses space division multiplexing (SDM) technology to provide more than 400Tbps of capacity. According to SUBCO, it is Australia’s first ‘hypercable’ and the first submarine cable system to land in both Melbourne and Adelaide, providing an additional route between Sydney and Perth.
Bevan Slattery, founder and Co-CEO of SUBCO, comments, “SMAP going live is the culmination of more than three years of hard work, and a landmark moment for Australia’s digital future.
“For the first time, the nation’s four major cities are connected by a single, fully armoured, high-capacity subsea system, delivering the resilience and scale that Australia’s digital economy, and its role as a connectivity hub for the Indo-Pacific, demands.”
Foundation customers begin using new network
The system’s foundation customers include 5GN, Swoop, Aussie Broadband, Cloudflare, GSL, Host Universal, Kinetix, Leaptel, Megaport, Telair, and Virtutel.
Brad Parker, CTO at Aussie Broadband, notes, “By coming on board early as a foundational customer of SMAP, we’re locking in the capacity, performance, and resilience our customers will need for the next decade and beyond.
“The hyperscale capacity and added redundancy allows us to move massive volumes of traffic between our capital city points of presence with lower latency, higher availability, and far more headroom for growth.”
Damian Matacz, Director, Network Strategy at Cloudflare, adds, “A better internet is built on resilient infrastructure. SMAP gives Cloudflare diverse new domestic paths across Australia, strengthening our network and elevating the experience for everyone our customers serve.”
Brendan Halley of Host Universal concludes, “SUBCO have always been forward thinking in how they design and operate their cable systems. SMAP is a standout example of that, delivering the resilient, sovereign infrastructure Australia needs. We’re proud to continue our relationship as a foundation partner.”
For more from SUBCO, click here.
