Sub.co to lay new SMAP cable in Australian waters

Sub.co, the Bevan Slattery-led submarine cable venture, has formally commenced construction of a subsea cable that will connect the southern cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

The SMAP cable venture has reached “contract in force” status, according to the company.

The 5000km cable will be laid by Alcatel Submarine Networks, installed by Optic Marine Systems, and will form part of Sub.co's HyperOne project.

According to Sub.co, SMAP’s 12 fibre pairs will give the cable more than 300Tbps per section capacity, and high energy efficiency at 15Tb/kW, “25 times more energy efficient than the legacy terrestrial intercapital systems that currently exist along the same route,” the company said.

It’s a fully-armoured submarine cable, which the company said will give it “the highest uptime … of any Australian long-haul submarine cable system.”

The company is also claiming “100 percent carbon neutrality” from day one.

“This … will be achieved through the installation of solar and renewable infrastructure at all cable landing station locations, as well as the purchase of 100 percent renewable energy," Sub.co said in a statement.

Marine surveys for SMAP will begin before the end of the year, and cable manufacturing is scheduled to start in the first quarter of calendar 2024.

If all goes to plan, it will be ready for service in Q1 2026.

The cable would deliver a considerable performance increment over Sub.co’s 40Tbps Indigo Central, which has landings only in Sydney and Perth.

In a LinkedIn post, Slattery hinted that there may be “a cheeky BU [branching unit] for potential extension to Hobart to create Hobart’s first ever direct connection to Sydney and Melbourne” as well.