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wiredInUSA - May 2016
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Negotiations between the Tasmanian
government and SubPartners, to build a
third fiber optic cable between Tasmania
and the mainland, have come to a halt.
Two years ago, Brisbane-based SubPartners
invited the government to invest $20 million
to tap into the latest arm of its global
digital cable network. Michael Ferguson,
the technology minister, commissioned a
consultant to assess the business case for
$180,000.
SubPartners had intended laying a
submarine cable from Perth to Sydney and
suggested a spur could be built to connect
Tasmania at either Hobart or George
Town. It is part of SubPartners’ long-term
plan to build the APX-Central (Perth to
Sydney), APX-West (Perth to Singapore)
and APX-East (Sydney to US) fiber optic
submarine cables.
SubPartners has reportedly experienced
delays gaining the necessary permits and
securing key customers and investors.
The lack of progress has disappointed
industry hopes that the extra cable
would create more competition, reduce
Internet prices, and provide continuity of
connection in the event of cable outage.
Third time unlucky, so far
Huawei Marine has reported a
breakthrough
in
unrepeatered
submarine cable system transmission,
achieving a transmission distance of
627km in a Beijing laboratory.
While
installing
and
maintaining
repeatered systems remains expensive,
the ultra-long unrepeatered system is a
promising technology due to its ease of
installation and lower capital costs.
The laboratory test was performed on
a 100G channel over an ultra-low loss
optical fiber using Huawei Marine’s
self-developed
enhanced
Raman
amplifier and remote optical pumping
amplifier. These advanced technologies
offer a high efficiency of gain bandwidth
and an extremely low noise factor, greatly
enhancing the transmission capability of
a 100G unrepeatered system.
Huawei Marine has achieved the
deployment and commercial operation
of numerous systems, of which the longest
10G and 100G unrepeatered transmission
distances reached 426km and 380km,
respectively.
Long distance transmission
test