[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] Australian Stock Exchange-listed telecommunications carrier Amcom has sealed the first deal on its long-haul fibre link between Australia’s eastern and western seaboards before it is even completed, with a $18.5 million agreement with Asian telco SingTel.
The deal is Amcom’s first major pre-sale of capacity on the proposed cross-country link, for which the company is currently building the Melbourne to Adelaide segment.
When completed, the link will span 3875km between Melbourne and Perth, providing a new path for SingTel’s rapidly growing Asia Pacific data traffic volumes.
“The SingTel relationship endorses the IP1 project and opens the door to additional opportunities with other major carriers and bandwidth providers in the region,” said Amcom managing director Andy McLean of the deal.
“Such prospective interests could include the owners of the South East Asia-Middle of Europe-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) network off the west of Australia, and the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) and the Australia-Japan Cable sub-sea network that both connect from the east coast of Australia,” Mr. McLean added. “These networks provide intercontinental links, so the eastern-western seaboard link gives Amcom an opportunity to add an intra-continental aspect to their projects.”
The Amcom eastern-western IP1 project includes Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology as a sweetener for interested networks. This technology breaks down the optic fibre transmission into different ‘colors’ or frequencies, enabling the fibre to scale to carry greater bandwidth without necessarily needing a physically bigger cable.
SingTel’s investment will allow the telco to manage its sub-sea cable bandwidth and terrestrial links across Australia to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
“This transcontinental link in Australia has significant strategic value for SingTel, with the potential to provide connectivity between major infrastructure projects such as the SEA-ME-WE and SCCN,” said SingTel Australia managing director Wee Kee Long. “This will help SingTel provide a strategic alternative southern global route for our Asia Pacific customers to the US and beyond.”
SingTel’s investment also adds to its long-term relationship with Amcom, which began with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two carriers last September. The MOU involved the supply of trans-Australian bandwidth between all Australian capital cities, and Amcom agreeing to deliver services for SingTel across its national metropolitan networks.
