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Google has chosen Vocus to build a 42,500 kilometre fibre optic cable in the Indo-Pacific region, extending a preexisting South Pacific link with more connections to Australia as well as Christmas Island and Singapore.
The new fibre optic cable, named Australia Connect, will compliment the previously announced South Pacific-based Pacific Connect cable system with four additional network links connecting Melbourne to Perth, Perth to Christmas Island, Christmas Island to Singapore and Christmas Island to Darwin.
In addition, Perth, Darwin and Brisbane will also become key beneficiaries of the investment as they become key connection points on the global internet network.
Meanwhile, Pacific Connect, which was announced in October last year, links Australia and the West Coast of the US via a multi-terabit ring network through and between Fiji and French Polynesia and landing in Sydney and Melbourne.
The partnership will also put Vocus in a position to be able to supply an initial 20-30 terabytes per second of capacity per fibre pair on the announced systems, depending on the length of the segment, the telecommunication company claimed.
“Australia Connect will bolster our nation’s strategic position as a vital gateway between Asia and the United States by connecting key nodes located in Australia’s east, west, and north to global digital markets,” Jarrod Nink, interim chief executive officer at Vocus, said.
The newly established subsea paths, combined with Vocus’ existing land-based infrastructure, will provide diversity, capacity and reliability for Google, customers and partners, he added.
The partnership caps off a busy year for Vocus as it agreed to buy TPG Telecom’s fibre network infrastructure assets and its enterprise, government and wholesale (EGW) fixed business in October for an enterprise value of roughly $5.3 billion.
Subject to regulatory approval, the deal includes Vision Network and sees TPG retain its mobile radio network infrastructure, consumer and EGW mobile business and its consumer and small office/home office fixed retail business, including fixed wireless.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025 and will deliver net cash proceeds of approximately $4.7 billion to $4.8 billion.