Australia - Telecoms - International Networks

Synopsis

Australia’s advanced and extensive telecommunications infrastructure spans the country and extends across the Tasman and into Asia. This report covers international developments in undersea cable and satellite based infrastructure, including backbones across the Tasman Sea and to Asia and the USA

Telstra and its technology partner Alcatel-Lucent launched the Sydney end of a 9,000 km cable to Hawaii in 2008, which competes against rival cables operated by Southern Cross, Pipe Networks and Australia-Japan Cable. There is also the potential for a new cable connection between Western Australia to Asia, while in mid-2013 a consortium including Telstra, Telecom NZ and Vodafone NZ launched a tender for a new cable to run from Sydney to Auckland.

With the National Broadband Network being expanded, the growth in the use of undersea bandwidth will be significant over the next decade as high speed connections become available across Australia. The satellite market will also be boosted over this period as remote users get increased speeds from newly launched satellites which will provide improved connectivity to remote communities. More detail on satellite networks is covered in separate reports: Australia - Telecoms - High-speed satellite services and Australia - Mobile Satellite Services.

Key developments:

AARNet completes upgrade to southern and northern portions of the SXTransPORT cable, also completes the AARNet4 network; Nextgen’s North West Cable System secures financing; Hawaiki Cable signs up growing number of telcos; Telstra contracts Infinera to upgrade a range of Pacific area cables; contracts awarded by three operators bidding for Perth to Singapore cable project; SpeedCast opens Perth office and concludes IPO.