Telstra eyes capacity on Perth subsea cable

Telstra International has emerged as a potential capacity buyer on a 6.4 Terabits per second subsea fibre optic cable to be built between Perth and Singapore.

The 4600km cable, called ASSC-1, will compete with the SEA-ME-WE3 cable that currently serves the Perth-Asia route.

A Telstra International spokeswoman declined to comment on a potential deal when approached by iTnews.

But information sighted by iTnews indicated that the carrier was in discussions to take one of four fibre pairs that make up ASSC-1.

According to information on ASSC-1's website, the cable has a total design capacity of 12 TBps and a 25-year lifespan.

It is expected to have landing stations in Perth, Indonesia and Singapore, though it was unclear if all fibre pairs will run via Indonesia.

Construction of the cable has been outsourced to Tianjin, China-based Huawei Marine Networks, a joint-venture between Huawei Technologies and British firm Global Marine Systems. The joint-venture plans to use 40 Gbps networking technology for the Singapore-Perth network.

"The aim of ASSC-1 is to significantly improve the ability and speed with which to transfer data and to facilitate internet usage between Australia, Asia and the rest of the world," the operators of the network state on the company's web site.

ASSC-1 identified its CEO, James Chen, as a "majority investor" in the project. It is unclear exactly how much the company has put up or raised for the project.

An ASSC-1 Communications spokeswoman declined to comment to iTnews.

It is not the first time that a new subsea cable has been proposed for the route. In May last year, Leighton Holdings signed a deal with Alcatel-Lucent to build a slightly longer link. A preliminary survey of that cable route is expected to be completed next month.