WCA March 2019

Industry news

Australian connection

$1.9 billion to meet transmission demand The Australian state of New South Wales has outlined plans to spend around $1.9 billion to accelerate the development of transmission capacity for wind and solar power. According to Reuters news agency, New South Wales alone has solar and wind projects worth around $19 billion, with a further 20GW of capacity in the design stage. The state is working with transmission operator Transgrid, owned by a consortium led by Spark Infrastructure group, to speed up planning and feasibility work on four projects. The facilities are needed between 2022 and 2024, to boost connections between New South Wales and its neighbouring states of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. Transgrid – Australia Website : www.transgrid.com.au

The 36Tbps, two fibre pair cable system will span 9,200km, and be the first direct connection between Sydney and Singapore. “The landing of Indigo Central cable by Optus is a landmark development, which will boost Australia’s communications ecosystem with much-needed high speed capacity and network diversity,” said Ooi Seng Keat, Singtel’s VP of carrier services for group enterprise. “Together with Indigo West, the next-generation Indigo Central data superhighway will enhance Singtel and Optus’s subsea networks, creating a cable ring connecting Australia to Singapore, through Southeast Asia, across the Pacific and back to Australia.” SubPartners – Australia Website : www.subpartners.net/indigo.html

THE consortium behind the Indigo Central subsea cable has announced the cable’s landing in Sydney, Australia. Once complete, Indigo Central will be the first subsea cable directly connecting Sydney, on the east coast of the nation, with Perth on the west coast. The cable was fully installed in early December last year, and has been designed to complement the connecting Indigo West cable between Singapore and Perth. The Indigo project is funded by a consortium of Singtel, Telstra, the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), Indonesia’s Indosat, the telecoms infrastructure company SubPartners, and Google. The overall Indigo system is expected to be ready for service in mid-2019.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2019