Leighton Contractors has announced the signing of a key deal for its plan to build a 4,800 kilometre high-speed cable connection linking Perth and Singapore, and says the link will be operational by 2013.
Newly-formed Leighton subsidiary Australia-Singapore Cable Ltd said it had reached agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to provide the latest D+ optic fibre equipment for the submarine link, which will provide the option for 100 gigabit per second transmission.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Construction of the project is expected to kick off in the first quarter of next year, with operation by 2013.
Design, route surveying and permit applications in Australia, Indonesia and Singapore is under way.
The link was first flagged by Leighton subsidiary Nextgen early last year as an 8,000 km connection between Perth and Jakarta, capable of 2.56 terabit per second transmission speeds.
The revised project will have an initial capacity of at least 6 Tbit/s, with potential for expansion to over 16 Tbit/s.
The connection will terminate at a data centre in Shenton Park owned by another Leighton subsidiary, Metronode.
Australia-Singapore Cable chairman Peter McGrath said the new system would offer a cost effective, higher capacity and lower latency route than alternative east coast links.
"We have strong support from our key supplier Alcatel-Lucent who will design, construct and install the submarine cable system," Mr McGrath said.
"The technology chosen for this project ensures that it is future proof and can meet the projected demand for data traffic in coming years."
