Singtel, Telstra, SubPartners to build Perth-S’pore submarine cable

SINGAPORE — Singtel entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Thursday (March 31) with Australia’s largest telco Telstra and telecoms infrastructure firm SubPartners to build a new international submarine cable connecting Singapore and Perth.

“The APX-West cable will be a new data superhighway to expand data connectivity and capacity between Singapore and Australia, providing network redundancy and the lowest latency from Australia to South-east Asia, the Middle East and Europe… With these capabilities, the Singtel group, including Optus, can meet customers’ growing data requirements for bandwidth-intensive applications such as unified communications, enterprise data exchange, Internet TV and online gaming,” said Mr Ooi Seng Keat, vice president, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise at Singtel.

Mr Darrin Webb, Telstra’s executive director for International Operations and Services said: “As consumers and businesses continue to embrace online products and services, such as video streaming and cloud, the demand for international connectivity continues to rise, creating a strong case for building this new cable.”

“This is a unique commercial model for the Perth-Singapore route that will satisfy the ongoing bandwidth requirements of both network operators and internet content hosts,” SubPartners founder and chief executive Bevan Slattery added.

Construction of the APX-West cable, spanning more than 4,500km, is expected to begin by the end of July and is scheduled for completion in 2018. The financial details were not disclosed in the MOU but The Australian newspaper reported that APX-West is expected to cost in excess of US$100 million (S$135 million).

The current data bridge between Singapore and Perth is carried by the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable. The new cable will incorporate two fibre pairs providing two-way data transmission and each pair will have a minimum design capacity of 10 Terabits per second. The cable will terminate in facilities operated by the consortium members in Singapore and Australia, significantly reducing costs and permitting times, Singtel said.

Singtel shares closed down 3 cents, or 0.8 per cent, at S$3.82 on Thursday. ANGELA TENG