A new Australian company has announced plans to deploy a cable system linking the country to Indonesia and Singapore.
ASSC-1 Communications Group has revealed it will deploy the Australia-Singapore Subsea Cable (also called ASSC-1), a four fiber pair system that will span 4,600km, offer 40G capacity initially and the ability for a future upgrade to 100G.
Australian incumbent Telstra has agreed to purchase one of the four fiber pairs, and to provide landing party services in Perth. In Indonesia, Matrix Cable Systems will supply the Jakarta landing through their own cable landing station.
The cable will be supplied by Huawei Marine Networks, which this week also commenced survey work on a cable between Australia and New Zealand for Axin Marine, and began deploying a trans-Atlantic cable for Hibernia – the first subsea crossing between the UK and North America in a decade.
The ASSC-1 is another potential competitor for Southern Cross Cables Network – which operates a cable linking Australia, New Zealand and the US. The operator already slashed its wholesale access rates by up to 44% this week, shortly after the Axin Marine announcement was made, and detailed plans to upgrade to 100G by December, New Zealand's National Business Review reports.