SubPartners to build trans-Australia subsea cable

Subsea cable start-up SubPartners has commenced a project to build a cable system spanning between Perth and Sydney.

The company has announced plans to deploy APX-Central, a 5300 km, four fibre pair cable system that would branch to Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart.

APX-Central will be deployed in tandem with SubPartners’ planned APX-West, which will connect Perth with Changi North in Singapore and branch to Jakarta, Indonesia and Christmas Island.

Both cables will have an initial design capacity of up to 32 Tbps, and are expected to be ready for service by the second quarter of 2016.

SubPartners has also previously announced plans to deploy APX-East, which will run from Sydney to Los Angeles, with branching units to New Zealand, Hawaii and a number of Pacific islands. It is scheduled to be ready for service by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull praised “SubPartners’ vision to radically change connectivity in and out of Australia, whilst simultaneously providing a much-needed investment in the domestic interstate market”.

SubPartners was co-founded in mid-2012 by PIPE Networks co-founder Bevan Slattery. PIPE Networks built the $200 million PPC-1 Sydney to Guam Cable in 2009. TPG Telecom acquired the company in May 2010 for $420 million.

Pictured: The planned APX Central route.