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The Oman Australia Cable (OAC) has entered contract in force (CIF) status, expecting to be fully connected by the end of 2021
SUB.CO has announced that the new OAC cable is now CIF, allowing them to target a 2021 completion date.
The OAC cable itself will connect Oman’s capital, Muscat, with Perth on the west coast of Australia, spanning a total distance of around 9,800 km. The cable will follow a route specifically designed to be low risk, both in terms of avoided extreme natural events, as well as disputed territorial waters, such as the Sunda Strait and the South China Sea. As such, the OAC will become part of what is being called the ‘Great Southern Route’, linking the continental US to Australia and EMEA.
The cable is a three fibre pair system, with an option to upgrade to a fourth pair depending on demand. In anticipation of this demand, a branching unit has been strategically placed to allow the system to expand, potentially linking it to Salalah, Oman, and Djibouti in future.
The cable is expected to begin installation from March.
“With a series of other major submarine cable projects looking to enter CIF status in the next quarter, this is a tremendous coup for the project and reduces project implementation risks and funding costs significantly,” said Bevan Slattery, the founder of SUB.CO.
The new cable will be the only one of its kind directly linking continental Australia with the EMEA region, providing the first secure, diverse, express and lowest latency route between the two continents.
It is worth noting that Perth has been the target of major investment when it comes to submarine cables in recent years, with three new submarine cables recently completed. The OAC, Slattery notes, will complement these new deployments.
“OAC will be highly complementary to the recent submarine cables between Perth and Singapore as well as Indigo Central, which will be used to extend OAC to Australia’s cloud capital – Sydney,” explained Slattery.
What impact will the Great Southern Route have on the submarine cable ecosystem? Find out from the experts at this year’s Submarine Networks EMEA conference
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