Vocus touts 60Tbps capacity on Australia Singapore Cable

Telco says sold capacity on new cable rapidly outstripping Sea-Me-We3

The ASC landing

The ASC landing

Credit: Vocus

Vocus says that end to end capacity on the Australian Singapore Cable (ASC) is now 60 terabits per second (Tbps), up from its September 2018 debut of 40Tbps.

The cable system comprises four fibre pairs and stretches from Perth to Singapore, with connections to Christmas Island and Indonesia.

“Since launch, we have nearly sold 10-times the entire capacity of the Sea-Me-We3 cable system on ASC,” said Vocus chief executive, wholesale, Mark Callander.

Callander said he expects sold capacity on ASC to exceed 4Tbps within the first 12 months of its launch, adding that there is “increasing demand across all paths to the west.”

The Vocus executive Callander said that the ASC could potentially be connected to Vocus’ North West Cable system, which runs from Port Headland to Darwin and provides services to the oil and gas and mining sectors.

“It also gives us more options into Indonesia, the fourth most populated nation in the world, and with the seventh largest economy that is growing at around 5 per cent,” he said in a statement.

Vocus picked up the ASC and NWC projects as part of its acquisition of Nextgen Networks.

Earlier this year a rival Australia-Singapore subsea cable debuted. The INDIGO cable system is backed by a consortium comprising AARNet, Google, Indosat Ooredoo, Optus’ parent company Singtel, SubPartners (owned by Superloop) and Telstra.

Vocus earlier this month detailed a new structure for its business, with Vocus Networks Services bringing together the group’s enterprise, government and wholesale arms

“Our core business is Vocus Networks,” group CEO Kevin Russell last week told a strategy briefing. “That's where the core strategic strategy assets lie. That’s where the core value creation opportunity lies.

"Making that statement unambiguous, unambiguous within the organisation is helpful, because what does it mean? It means discretionary capital goes to Vocus Networks first and foremost.”

Within Australia, the telco has been seeking to simplify a complicated tangle of networks and BSS stacks — a legacy of its significant history of mergers and acquisitions.

Credit: Vocus

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Tags NetworkingTelecommunicationssubmarine cablesVocusVocus CommunicationsVocus Groupsubsea cableAustralia Singapore Cable

More about AARNetASCAustraliaGoogleIslandNextgen NetworksOptusSingtelSubPartnersWest

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