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Digital service providers NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), Subco and Vocus have partnered with Google to upgrade Australia’s digital infrastructure through the delivery of new subsea cable landing points in the country’s north, south, east and west coasts as part of the $1 billion Australia Connect initiative announced last year.
The Australia Connect initiative is a collaborative effort involving Google and key commercial partners, as well as state and local governments nationally. It will extend beyond the previously announced Pacific Connect system that links Australia and the west coast of the US through a multi-terabit ring network passing through Fiji and French Polynesia, and landing in Sydney, Melbourne and Sunshine Coast.
Australia Connect complements the Pacific Connect initiative with four additional network links connecting Melbourne to Perth, Perth to Christmas Island, Christmas Island to Singapore, and Christmas Island to Darwin.
Under separate agreements announced today, NEXTDC and SUBCO, two companies founded by Brisbane-based tech infrastructure entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, will play a critical role in the digital infrastructure program.
SUBCO and Google will collaborate on building coordinated cable landing infrastructure at Maroubra in NSW and the Victorian costal township of Torquay, as well as new infrastructure that connects these locations back to the respective parties’ cable landing stations.
This infrastructure will support SUBCO’s transcontinental submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and Google’s upcoming transpacific cable systems, Tabua and Honomoana.
Meanwhile, data centre operator NEXTDC is partnering with Google and the Sunshine Coast City Council to create a new landing point for the Tabua trans-Pacific subsea cable that will connect the US and Australia to Fiji.
This is expected to land at NEXTDC’s SC1 data centre in Maroochydore next year with the project expected to offer enhanced cable connectivity with faster, more resilient internet infrastructure for businesses in previously unconnected markets.
Google also announced today that it is expanding the Pacific Connect initiative with the Bosun subsea cable connecting Darwin to Christmas Island, which has onward connectivity to Singapore. A new interlink cable will connect Melbourne, Perth, and Christmas Island, while in Melbourne, the interlink cable will connect to the Honomoana cable system to create a new interconnection point for services from the US to Asia.
Digital infrastructure provider Vocus, which is owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and Aware Super, has been chosen as a strategic partner for the Australia Connect initiative, which upon completion will comprise a 42,500km high-capacity submarine network linking to Australia’s north, east and west coasts.
“Australia Connect will bolster our nation's strategic position as a vital gateway between Asia and the United States by connecting key nodes located in Australia's east, west and north to global digital markets,” says Jarrod Nink, interim CEO of Vocus.
“The combination of the new Australia Connect subsea cables with Vocus' existing terrestrial route between Darwin and Brisbane, will create a low latency, secure, and stable network architecture. It will also establish Australia’s largest and most diverse domestic inter-capital network, with unparalleled reach and protection across terrestrial and subsea paths.”
Nink says the new subsea paths, combined with Vocus’ existing land-based infrastructure, will provide “unprecedented levels of diversity, capacity and reliability for Google, our customers and partners”.
Belle Lajoie the co-CEO of Soda Infrastructure, parent company of subsea cable provider SUBCO, says the partnership with Google allows both parties to “harness shared infrastructure, enhancing resilience, speeding up project delivery, and minimising environmental and community impact”.
“Together, we’re delivering vital subsea connectivity to Australia’s major cities and establishing new, robust subsea cable routes between Sydney, Melbourne, and beyond – strengthening connectivity across the region,” says Lajoie.
NEXTDC CEO Craig Scroggie subsea connection at Maroochydore will strengthen the Sunshine Coast’s position as a hub for investment and "further fortifies Australia’s digital economy".
“We are longstanding collaborators of Google, having worked closely together on multiple cable landing facilities. The team are excited to extend our partnership to include the Australia Connect initiative which will deliver stronger, faster and more resilient internet for Australia and the region," says Scroggie.
“As a data centre provider with a network connecting coast to coast across mainland Australia, this ongoing commitment to invest in the nation’s mission critical infrastructure enables NEXTDC to provide industry-leading solutions to our customers as they navigate the transformative impacts of AI to accelerate their strategic advantage.”
Subsea cable networks are responsible for carrying most of the world's Internet traffic and, once fully operational, the Australia Connect initiative is aiming to deliver new and diverse digital pathways to boost the reliability and resilience of the internet within Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
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