SUBCO will build a new undersea fibre cable linking Australia directly to the US within two years to meet an expected surge in demand for capacity carrying AI-related data workloads.
The undersea cable builder said that the new 16-pair submarine fibre link, to be called APX East, is expected to be the first to link the two countries without the need to land in other jurisdictions.
Furthermore, it said it would be the longest continuous optical subsea cable ever built in the world and provide Australia with its lowest latency link to the US based on currently available routes.
APX East is expected to be ready for service by the fourth calendar quarter of 2028 with landing points in Sydney and San Diego, and branches to Hawaii and Fiji operating in 2029.
The new cable system will offer the security and resilience of being single-end power fed across its entire span.
The single-end power feed capability means that the cable can continue to carry traffic should it be damaged by an impact that exposes its core to seawater – a situation that might ordinarily cut capacity dramatically on systems that use alternative power designs, if not altogether.
The direct link also spares tenant fibre pair owners of the need to tackle permits and other red tape needed to install terminating equipment in other jurisdictions along the cable’s route.
Furthermore, they will only need to install the equipment at its landing points in Australia and the US, where regulatory processes are frequently more mature and easier to navigate.
It also avoids landing points in small island states in the South Pacific which have been a source of tension in cases where China has sought to wield economic influence over those local governments.
SUBCO founder and co-chief executive Bevan Slattery said that Australia’s current planned undersea fibre capacity is not ready for the country’s coming AI push.
“With all the talk of AI factories, people are forgetting that the longest lead item for Australia isn’t going to be power, land, (data centres) or chips, it’s going to be international connectivity at AI scale,” Slattery said.
“APX East will be a critical enabler for Australia’s aspirations to become a leader in the AI world.”
Australia’s AI processing is expected to require three gigawatts’ data centre capacity by 2028, according to Slattery.
However, he said that would need to be matched by an expected increase in demand for undersea capacity in the range 75 to 150 terabytes.
“Any future system with a 2029 or 2030 [ready for service date] simply won’t work,” he said.
“APX-East is an all deepwater system between Sydney and California, that reduces permitting risk, allowing an accelerated installation and completion.”
iTnews contacted SUBCO for comment on whether any of the fibre pairs on the link had already been sold but it did not respond in time for publication.
SUBCO is already chasing a target to have its new Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth (SMAP) intercapital undersea fibre link will be ready for service by May this year.
The company last week revealed the service commencement date after confirming that final work on the Perth-Adelaide-Melbourne leg of the 5000km system would be completed this month.
Foreshadowing the APX East announcement, at the time Slattery said that SUBCO’s subsea fibre investments were aimed at increased demand for capacity as take-up of data-intensive, AI computing continues to grow domestically.
“With the acceleration of AI and data-intensive workloads, secure, high-capacity connectivity is in even greater demand. SUBCO has been investing ahead of the curve to ensure Australia is well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity,” he said.
SMAP is expected to provide 400Tbps of undersea fibre capacity linking Australia’s east and west coasts primarily via a route tracing from Sydney down the east coast to Melbourne and on to Perth through the Southern Ocean with a spur linking to Adelaide. It’s supported by additional terrestrial capacity linking Sydney and Melbourne.
Together with other subsea cables being constructed across routes connecting Australia’s west coast to the world via the Indian Ocean, the end-to-end path could serve as a redundant path linking the US to Europe via a western route.
SUBCO first announced SMAP mid-2023 when it revealed that it had commenced contracts with Alcatel Submarine Networks and Optic Marine Systems to build it.