A consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra announced that they have entered into an agreement with Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) for the construction of a new subsea cable system.
On completion, the new INDIGO cable system (previously known as APX West & Central) will expand connectivity between Australia and South East Asia markets, and will enable higher speed services and improved reliability.
The INDIGO cable system will span approximately 9,000 km between Singapore and Perth, Australia, and onwards to Sydney. The system will land at existing facilities in Singapore, Australia and Indonesia, providing connections between Singapore and Jakarta.
The system will feature a two-fibre pair 'open cable' design and spectrum- sharing technology. This design will allow consortium members to share ownership of spectrum resources provided by the cable and allow them to independently leverage technology advances and implement future upgrades as required.
Utilising coherent optical technology, each of the two fibre pairs will provide a minimum capacity of 18 Tbit/s, with the option to further increase this capacity in the future.
In addition to Google, the INDIGO consortium is made up of: AARNet, a provider of national and international telecom infrastructure to Australia's research and education sector; Indosat Ooredoo, an Ooredoo Group company providing telecom services in Indonesia; Singtel of Singapore, with a presence in Asia, Australia and Africa; and SubPartners based in Brisbane, Australia, which focuses on delivering major telecoms infrastructure projects in partnership with other companies.
ASN will undertake construction of the subsea cable system, which is expected to be completed by mid-2019
