KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 (Bernama) -- Australia’s fastest telecommunications connection to Asia and second fastest to the United States will occur from the Sunshine Coast, thanks to a new international submarine cable contract that has been agreed between Sunshine Coast Council and RTI Connectivity Pty Ltd (RTI-C).
Sunshine Coast Council was the first local government in Australia to secure an investment in an international submarine cable; and in an increasingly digital world, the value of this investment for the region's future could not be understated, a statement said.
The project includes a 550km undersea fibre optic cable which will connect the Sunshine Coast to the 9,600km Japan-Guam-Australia South (JGA-S) submarine cable that is currently being delivered by a consortium involving RTI-C, Google and AARNet.
At Guam, the JGA-S cable will connect to the SEA-US Cable System, a highly efficient Trans-Pacific cable which will forge connections between South-East Asia and the United States for more than 1.5 billion people.
The investment of up to AUD$35 million (RM103.8 million) in the undersea cable connection from the Sunshine Coast to the JGA-S cable plus supporting land-based infrastructure is being jointly funded by the Sunshine Coast Council and the Queensland Government. (AUD$1 = RM2.97)
The Sunshine Coast will provide the fastest, most affordable international connection point for Queensland and Australia to Asia, providing a significant step-change in Queensland's attractiveness as an investment location.
The landing of a submarine cable on the Sunshine Coast will not only diversify the landing locations for telecommunications traffic, but will also provide speed, reliability and capacity improvements for the whole of the state.
The cable – which would connect to a new cable landing station near the Maroochydore City Centre – would increase data transmission speed, provide greater redundancy and should, over time, lead to a reduction in international communications costs for business and consumers.
Ratepayers will also benefit from the agreements reached with RTI-C, as the council will receive a revenue stream from customers accessing the JGA-S cable network through the Sunshine Coast cable connection.
The new path will deliver traffic into and out of Australia faster than the Sydney route as it is geographically closer to mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan besides west coast of the United States where big companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon are located.
The international submarine cable will also benefit small business as it will provide better connectivity, speed and redundancy and encourage new companies to look at the Sunshine Coast to take advantage of the connectivity to international communications infrastructure.
The submarine cable will be supplied and installed by Alcatel Submarine Network (ASN). It is expected to be completed by the first half of 2020, the statement said.
-- BERNAMA
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