Tassie eyes fourth subsea internet cable

Tasmania will get a fourth subsea fibre cable crossing Bass Strait within five years, according to an infrastructure blueprint for the island state.

The blueprint indicated the state government had commissioned an engineering study on the proposed new cable.

It was proposed the cable would be completed within a three-to-five year timeframe.

The Tasmanian Government indicated that it would invest over $6 billion in infrastructure "over the next decade and beyond", including the fibre optic cable.

The state is already connected to the mainland via three undersea cables - two owned by Telstra and one by Basslink that was co-located with power transmission infrastructure.

A fourth cable could give telcos and ISPs redundant links to and from Tasmania that were independent of Telstra for the first time.

Digital Tasmania welcomed the move.

"We've long called for that as a solution to Tasmania's isolation," spokesman Andrew Connor said.

ISP Primus also previously backed calls for construction of a fourth cable.