Vocus, Australia’s specialist digital infrastructure operator, has signed an agreement with Google to deliver the highest-capacity submarine cable systems between Australia and the United States in the south Pacific.
In a major milestone for the partnership between Vocus and Google, the agreement cements and expands upon the previously announced Pacific Connect initiative. The Honomoana cable system will add a branch to Auckland, New Zealand, and enable a double Australian landing in Melbourne and Sydney – delivering not only a new domestic Sydney to Melbourne route, but also the first diverse route across the Tasman. Vocus will be able to provide as much as 30Tbps of capacity between Australia and New Zealand.
“This agreement with Google will massively expand Vocus’ digital infrastructure footprint. When combined with our existing cables, our network will span from South-East Asia to the US via multiple diverse landings in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific,” said Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney.
“Pacific Connect will significantly uplift trans-Tasman data capacity with the new Auckland landing, and brilliantly complements our existing network both in Australia and internationally – allowing Vocus to provide our customers with unprecedented network capacity and redundancy across three continents,” she said.
“The new Sydney to Melbourne route will also allow Vocus to provide our customers with another redundant route on Australia’s east coast, complementing our existing coastal and inland terrestrial routes that have recently been upgraded to offer 400Gbps services.”
A core element of the Pacific Connect initiative is to deliver a trans-Pacific subsea ring between Australia and the US via diverse landings and an interlink cable between Fiji and French Polynesia. The system will also include pre-positioned branching units to enable other Pacific nations to connect in the future.
The agreement will provide Vocus with dark fibre across the Pacific Connect system, with the option to acquire additional capacity in future as demand requires. This will initially provide Vocus with up to 30Tbps of capacity, depending on the length of the route, when the system is ready for service in 2026.
“Submarine cables are critical digital infrastructure, and by establishing new diverse landings throughout Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, French Polynesia, and the US, this new system will significantly uplift the digital resilience of Australia and the broader Pacific region,” Ms Sweeney said.
Vocus’ existing suite of cable infrastructure includes the 4,600km Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) from Perth to Singapore, the 2,100km North West Cable System (NWCS) currently being extended to Timor Leste, and the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC) system which provides a direct route from Darwin to Singapore via Port Hedland, Christmas Island, and Indonesia. Vocus also operates Australia’s second-largest intercapital fibre backbone network connecting all mainland capitals.
