Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially launched the 9,800-kilometre subsea cable connecting Oman to Western Australia (WA).
Albanese stated in his introductory remarks that the cable will make it possible for the first time to connect high-speed data directly from Australia’s east and west coasts to the Middle East and Europe.
The Oman-Australia Cable (OAC) costs over $300 million. It was built by Sub Co, a subsea fibre cable infrastructure group, and powered by Equinix’s International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Perth.
Initially, Sub.co stated that the OAC will be finished in December 2021. Then, though, it was postponed until the second quarter of 2022.
Equinix asserted that it will be the sole provider of data centers with an express connection connecting Oman and Australia. Even Charles Meyer, Equinix President and CEO, acknowledged that Perth is positioned to become a key hub at the time of the center’s completion.
According to Meyer, the OAC Cable Landing Stations in Perth and Oman will give businesses access to a dense network environment as well as the fastest, lowest-latency route from Australia to Europe.
Through this new international cable, Western Australia will become an important data hub for the country. It has never been more important for Australia’s economic future to ensure that businesses and industry can communicate data with global markets promptly and securely.
“OAC delivers more capacity to support Australia’s growing digital economy and jobs.” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.