Tracy Lee The Australian11 May, 2011 12:00AM
LEIGHTON Contractors and telecoms equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent are banking on growing trade and internet traffic between Southeast Asia and Australia as the pair push ahead with plans to build a high-speed submarine cable between Perth and Singapore.
Leighton has established a subsidiary, Australia-Singapore Cable, to manage the project, which will involve building a 4800km cable that will have 16 terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity by 2013.
The link is especially important as it will also connect overland to Sydney -- via a link with Nextgen Networks -- allowing the project to tap into continued demand for financial services between the region's two major economic centres.
"We've seen demand in the marketplace from existing clients like Nextgen Networks," said Peter McGrath, chairman of Australia-Singapore Cable (International) and executive general manager of Leighton Telecommunications.
"Sydney and Singapore are clearly two economic and financial centres in the region . . . and this will drive growth."
He said the cable would be largely funded through pre-commitments from domestic and international customers and building was expected to begin in the first quarter of next year. It is due for completion in 2013.
Observers said the project could cost about $200 million.
Mr McGrath said the cable would have some of the highest capacity available.
"Other cables have less bandwidth and much older technology," he said. "This is a route that's under-served and it's one that global carriers have been speaking to us about for a while."
The Perth-Singapore cable is expected to provide about eight times more capacity than similar regional routes.