Vocus Networks is in the process of deploying the final $100 million section of a submarine cable, which will connect Darwin to South-East Asia. The Ile de Re ship from Alcatel Submarine Networks is laying the segment off the coast of Port Hedland as part of the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC), and the cable is expected to be operational by mid-year.
This new cable will link Darwin to the Australia Singapore Cable (ASC), which runs from Perth to Singapore via Christmas Island and Jakarta, and to the North-West Cable System (NWCS), which connects Port Hedland to Darwin.
In addition to the DJSC, Vocus plans to deploy a 2000km cable, called Project Horizon, which will connect Port Hedland to Perth and also link to the Darwin cable. With a maximum capacity of 40Tbps, the DJSC will feature 14 repeaters and use dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) to support future upgrades.
Unlike most cable systems, the DJSC uses a submarine optical switch that allows the network operations team to remotely balance and optimize the amount of optical wavelength available for different routes on the cable, instead of relying on fixed optical allocations for each destination.
According to Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney, the completion of the Darwin-Jakarta Singapore Cable system will bring new possibilities to the north-west of Australia, providing direct international connectivity into Darwin as an alternative route to Perth or the east coast of Australia.
This new cable also adds redundancy to the southern section of Vocus’ ASC cable system, while giving Darwin its first direct international connectivity.
