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Next-generation submarine cable infrastructure provider SUBCO is planning to create the longest continuous subsea optical path in the world connecting the US to deliver Australia’s first local sovereign-owned international hypercable.
The latest submarine cable from SUBCO, known as APX East, is aimed at upgrading Australia’s international connectivity to meet the growing capacity required to service the growing demands of artificial intelligence technology.
SUBCO, which was founded by Brisbane tech entrepreneur Bevan Slattery in 2016, says the new express hypercable between Australia and the US is expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2028 with a Hawaii branch planned to be completed a year later.
The APX East cable will be a 16-fibre pair system that will be the first to offer hyperscalers, neoclouds and carriers direct fibre connectivity between Australia and mainland US without any landing or interconnection in between. It also will offer the lowest latency path between the two nations.
“By utilising the latest developments in submarine cable technologies, we have designed the longest, continuous optical subsea cable path in the world and one that can be powered from a single end in fault condition,” says Slattery, the CEO of SUBCO.
“Unlike all existing transpacific systems between Australia and the United States, fibre pair owners on APX-East simply need to install SLTE on either end, and they’re away. No regeneration, no intermediate PoP’s, just a single all deepwater route.”
SUBCO says APX East will be the first express cable system between Australia and the US not requiring optical regeneration and capable of being single-end power fed across the entire system. This is expected to deliver low latency, or reduced time delay, as well as security and simplicity for users.
“Hyperscalers and neoclouds are looking to deploy 3GW of AI factories in Australia between now and 2028,” says Slattery.
“This is going to need between 100Tb-200Tb of international capacity to deliver those tokens to the world.
“Any future system with a 2029 or 2030 RFS simply won’t work. APX-East is an all-deepwater system between Sydney and California, that reduces permitting risk, providing accelerated installation and completion.”
The hypercable will land in a new location north of Sydney’s existing cable protection zone, which SUBCO says provides diversity from all announced hypercables landing in the Southern Cable Protection Zone
“With all the talk of AI factories, people are forgetting that the longest lead item for Australia isn’t going to be power, land, data centres or chips, it’s going to be international connectivity at AI scale,” says Slattery.
“APX East will be a critical enabler for Australia’s aspirations to become a leader in the AI world.”
SUBCO is planning branches to Hawaii and Fiji that are additional to the trunk and not required for the main system to be ready for service.
These branches are expected to be operational in 2029, which SUBCO says are optional for customers seeking added resiliency to existing or future networks, or to regenerate capacity to support network growth.
SUBCO has invested more than $750 million?since inception to grow its portfolio including SMAP, a transcontinental submarine cable connecting Sydney, Melbourne (Torquay), Adelaide and Perth.
In 2023, the company announced plans to extend the 9,800km Oman Australia Cable (OAC) with a new branch to Salalah in Oman, adding about 1,200km of cable to create a new, highly diverse route to Europe and Africa.
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