Almost two-thirds (63%) of existing subsea cables landing in Australia are concentrated in Sydney, according to RTI Cables. It is easy to argue that connectivity follows the market and last year, in the span of eight months, according to DC Byte, the city saw a market size increase of almost 50 percent to sit now at 3.6GW of total IT capacity.
However, from a redundancy viewpoint, having more than 60% of all Australian cables concentrated in Sydney when the city is roughly 20% of the population means Australia needs more geographically diverse cable options. RTI Cables was an early mover to address this when it decided to land a cable branch on the Sunshine Coast – part of (JGA-S) – and, more widely, the industry is now focusing on delivering multiple new cable systems and new cable landings over the next 5 to 10 years.
For RTI, it got direct connectivity to emerging markets – Queensland (5.5m pop.), Brisbane (2.7m pop.) and the cable’s arrival has sparked a mini-ecosystem of ICT companies building businesses on the back of the connectivity. For example, Titan Telecoms has constructed a bespoke 144km open access fibre in South East Queensland and an optical backbone allowing enhanced connectivity and paving the way for further expansion.
More importantly, a 10Gbps Brisbane to Sunshine Coast connection has reduced costs from AUD 30,000 a month to AUD 1,000. The Sunshine Coast Council’s Greg Laverty said the region has also become an attractive proposition for large business with companies such as Google, Genpact, CI-ISAC and Cybermerc already investing in the region. The Sunshine Coast cable capabilities and links through organisations such as Titan Telecoms, means enhanced and more secure connectivity, greater diversity and resilience.
Melbourne connectivity lags for now
Last year, Australia’s largest data centre [DC] operator Equinix declared Melbourne the fastest growing edge metro in the world at a 45% CAGR, meaning it would reach 102Tbps by 2026, up from 35Tbps in 2023. Despite the growth, the city does not have direct international connectivity via subsea cables. That’s about to change.
Bevan Slattery’s Subco is building the transcontinental submarine cable system connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (SMAP) and while it is essentially a domestic cable, last November, the company announced plans to partner with Google and its international subsea cable builds. Specifically the relationship centres on Google’s upcoming transpacific cable systems, Tabua and Honomoana. Subco will collaborate on building coordinated cable landing infrastructure in Maroubra, NSW, and Torquay, Victoria as well as new infrastructure that connects these locations back to the respective parties’ cable landing stations.
Most recently, New Zealand wholesale fibre operator Chorus and Datagrid New Zealand joined forces to announce a 6,000km subsea cable – the Tasman Ring Network – which will connect directly to Sydney and Melbourne and feature 540Tbps in design capacity. The operator believes the network will “hugely improve” data centre connectivity in New Zealand and across the Tasman.
Southland NZ has all the ingredients to become a major AI Training hub, except for diverse international connectivity, which the Ring will address. At the same time, the Melbourne market in particular, along with the wider Australian connectivity market stand to benefit if the Ring – in addition to SMAPN – comes to fruition.
Interconnect World Melbourne 2025
Interconnect World Melbourne takes place on 3 April 2025 at CENTREPIECE, Melbourne Park. It is colocated with the Melbourne Cloud and Datacenter
Convention and will bring the unique focus established by Interconnect World through 2024 across Asia and Australia to the Victorian market. Interconnect World Melbourne will focus on future trends and directions as they relate to the key commercial, technological and operational decisions that will shape the future of the telco ecosystem. This exclusive event will bring together the industry’s leading telcos, ISPs, IXs, TMT investors, government agencies along with key decision makers from enterprise customers of telco services and equipment.
The ever-growing requirements for data connectivity from consumers, companies and infrastructure means many organisations in the industry and their customers face challenging investment, marketing and R&D decisions in order to remain competitive and profitable.
The discussion will look also at the changing competitive dynamics of the industry, the continuing evolution of technologies and protocols, the urgency of delivering competitive and relevant innovation in services and operations. Experts will discuss effective and relevant ‘real world’ business, tech and customer strategies for adding value and navigating the organisation through an increasingly unpredictable future.
For more information on Melbourne Interconnect World visit: https://interconnectworld.com/events/melbourne-interconnect-world-2025/
Author: Simon Dux