INDIGO cable system ready for use

The new INDIGO subsea cable linking Singapore, Indonesia and Australia has completed commissioning and is ready for use.

The INDIGO consortium – consisting of Google, Indonesia’s Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, and Australia’s SubPartners and Telstra – are now able to leverage the new cable system to enable capacity increases on demand.

The 9,200km INDIGO cable system can support a capacity of up to 36Tbps. It consists of the 4,600km INDIGO West cable between Singapore in Indonesia and Perth on the west coast of Australia with a branching unit to Jakarta, and the 4,600km INDIGO Central cable between Perth and Sydney on the east coast of Australia.

INDIGO uses new spectrum sharing technology which will allow consortium members to each independently manage capacity on the cable.

Alcatel Submarine Networks built the new cable system under an agreement reached with the consortium members in April 2017.

“The development of the INDIGO cable system strengthens the link between our Australian network and the fast-growing South East Asian markets and will deliver our customers faster connectivity and dramatically improved reliability,” Telstra head of international Oliver Camplin-Warner said.

Bandwidth demand between Asia and Australia is predicted to reach 75Tbps by 2025, TeleGeography predicts.

“As South East Asia and Australia become increasingly interconnected, a high-speed and robust connectivity infrastructure plays a critical role in catalyzing the development of digital economies across the regions,” Singtel VP of carrier services Ooi Seng Keat said.

“The completion of INDIGO will accelerate the roll-out of next-generation technologies that rely on low latency and high-bandwidth connectivity such as high-definition video, autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things and robotics applications.”

As well as its domestic operations in Singapore, Singtel is the 100% owner of major Australian operator Optus.