Oman Australia Cable

The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) is a 9,800 km fibre-optic submarine communications cable that entered service in September 2022,[1] linking Oman and Australia via the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The cable consists of three fibre pairs and had an initial design capacity of 39 terabits per second.[2]

Oman Australia Cable
Owners:
SUBCO
Key people:
Bevan Slattery
Operator:
SUBCO
Landing points
Total length9,800 km
Design capacity39 Tbit/s
Currently lit capacity48 Tbit/s
Date of first useSeptember 2022

OAC is owned and operated by SUBCO, with Omantel as the landing partner in Oman, and Equinix[3] providing the landing stations in Perth and Muscat.

History

The cable was announced by SUBCO in 2020, with a target completion date in 2021.[4] Manufacturing of the cable was completed by SubCom in January 2021,[5] with the SubCom cable ships CS Dependable and CS Reliance[6] being used for the installation works. The cable made landfall in Perth on 22 July 2021,[7] with landing station infrastructure in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands also being manufactured and installed during 2021.[8][9] Final landing of the cable in Barka, Oman occurred on 28 April 2022.[10]

The cable went live during September 2022,[11] and was officially switched on by Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister of Australia, during a ceremony in Perth on 24 October 2022.[12]

In March 2023, SUBCO announced plans to extend the cable with the installation of a diverse 1,200km spur that would land at Salalah, Oman,[13] which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

In October 2023, the cable was upgraded by Ciena from its original design of 39 Tbit/s to 48 Tbit/s of lit capacity.[2]

Routes

The Oman Australia Cable has been interconnected with the INDIGO Central and INDIGO West optical fibre cables at the Australian landing site in Perth.[1] SUBCO and Omantel are expected to extend the reach of the cable with connections from Muscat to London, Milan and Marseille.[14] The cable also includes additional branching units for future spurs that may link to Salalah, Oman and Djibouti City, Djibouti.[15]

The cable is notable for providing a diverse international route from Perth, and a lower-latency path between Australia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[10] Competing cables such as the Australia Singapore Cable, INDIGO West and SEA-ME-WE 3 all traverse a similar path via the Sunda Strait to Singapore, whereas OAC traverses the Indian Ocean to the south-western coast of Asia.[11]

The cable route is also noted as being similar to another proposed cable known as Australia West Express, which was first announced in May 2015[16] but was unable to obtain the investment required for construction and was ultimately cancelled.[17]

Diego Garcia Spur

During the laying of the cable, Twitter users monitoring the progress of the installation using Automatic identification system-based tracking services observed the CS Dependable loitering in the waters surrounding Diego Garcia, indicating that an undisclosed branching unit and spur may have been installed to provide connectivity to the atoll.[18]

On 6 July 2023, the existence of the Diego Garcia spur was publicly confirmed by the United States Pacific Fleet as part of a Reuters investigation into SubCom.[17] The article went on to state that the cable was previously announced to sailors on Diego Garcia by Captain Richard Payne, the commander of Diego Garcia at the time, during a talkback radio show on 9 February 2022, and that The Pentagon had paid for "around a third of the entire cable on the condition that it include a splice connecting its commercial trunk to Diego Garcia".

Landing points
  1. Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  3. Diego Garcia
  4. Muscat, Oman

See also

References
  1. Kate Weber (23 July 2021). "SUB.CO's Oman-Australia subsea cable lands in Perth". iTNews. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  2. "Oman Australia Cable gets extra capacity". iTNews. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. "Equinix to Provide Connectivity Hubs for Subsea Cable Carrying Data Between Australia and the Middle East" (Press release). Sydney, Australia: Equinix. 24 November 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  4. "Oman Australia Cable (OAC) Enters full contract in force status with target completion December 2021" (PDF) (Press release). Brisbane, Australia: SUBCO. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  5. "Oman Australia Cable (OAC) 100% Cable manufactured with marine installation commence in March 2021" (Press release). Brisbane, Australia: SUBCO. 20 January 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  6. Dan Swinhoe (6 July 2023). "US government paid for secret spur on Oman Australia Cable to Naval base on Diego Garcia island". Data Center Dynamics. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  7. "Australia's first express cable to EMEA has landed in Perth – On track to go live in Q2 (2022)" (Press release). Brisbane, Australia: SUBCO. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  8. "DXN Limited signs c$1.1M Cable Landing Station Contract" (PDF) (Press release). DXN Limited. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  9. "DXN Limited signs two contracts with Sub.Co and Solomon Islands Submarine Cable Company (SISCC) for builds worth c$1m" (PDF) (Press release). DXN Limited. 10 May 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  10. "Oman Australia Cable Completes Final Landing in Barka Oman" (PDF) (Press release). Barka, Oman & Brisbane, Australia: Subcom. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  11. "Oman-Australia cable lights up". iTNews. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  12. Eleanor Dickinson (24 October 2022). "$300M Oman-Australia cable switched on". ARN. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  13. Matt Ogg (7 March 2023). "Bevan Slattery-led SUBCO launches new cable to connect with Europe, Africa". Business News Australia. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  14. "Omantel strengthens partnership with SUBCO". Oman Daily Observer. 12 June 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  15. Ry Crozier (24 October 2019). "Bevan Slattery to build new Oman-Australia subsea cable". iTNews. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  16. "Alcatel-Lucent and GoTo Networks to build Australia West Express undersea cable system connecting Australia, Africa and the Middle East" (PDF) (Press release). Paris, France & Morristown, New Jersey, USA: Alcatel-Lucent. 11 May 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  17. Joe Brock (6 July 2023). "Inside the subsea cable firm secretly helping America take on China". Reuters. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  18. @philBE2 (21 March 2022). "21MAR22 OAC OM-AU cable revival?" (Tweet). Retrieved 1 October 2022 – via Twitter.
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