According to TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map 2022, there are 486 cable systems around the world, with 1,306 landings that are currently active or under construction.[1] The latest cable to go live is the new $300 million international digital super-highway that directly links Western Australia to key global markets through Oman, called the Oman Australia Cable (OAC).
We were delighted to welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan to our campus in Perth to celebrate the launch of OAC.
Switched on inside Equinix’s International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) PE2 data center in Perth in front of the state’s major broadcast and business media, Australia’s Prime Minister, Mr Anthony Albanese, said the OAC is a gamechanger for the nation, enabling direct ultra-high-speed data connectivity from both the East and West Coasts of Australia to the Middle-East and Europe for the first time.
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“This new international cable will make Western Australia a critical data hub for the country,” Mr Albanese said when addressing the press.
“Ensuring Australian businesses and industry can share data quickly and securely to global markets has never been more critical to our country’s economic future and OAC will deliver more capacity to support Australia’s growing digital economy and jobs.”
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan echoed the Prime Minister’s comments, saying the OAC marked a significant milestone in the future growth of the state’s economy.
“For the first time Western Australia will now be directly connected to the Middle-East, Indian and European markets through a 9,800 km optical fibre system providing the state with its own international data super-highway. Ensuring Western Australia has access to world class digital infrastructure is critical in an increasingly data driven economy,” Mr McGowan said.
Built by Australian owned and operated company SUBCO, Founder Bevan Slattery said the OAC system was strategically designed to avoid existing congested global data routes, improving Australia’s digital resiliency and security.
“This Oman Australia Cable opens up a new secure and low latency express route between Australia and EMEA and is the only cable that avoids other legacy systems built in heavily congested waters including the Malacca and Sunda Straits as well as South China Sea. As a result, all of Australia will now have access to improved network performance and reliability through this completely new route to the Middle-East and Europe from Australia.,” Mr Slattery said.
SUBCO selected Equinix for the landing of the OAC directly into our IBX data centers in Perth (PE2) and Muscat, Oman (MC1), which serve as strategic interconnection points for the cable system.
Equinix President and CEO Charles Meyer said the company was delighted to be the provider of cable station facilities for SUBCO in the fast-growing markets of Perth and Oman and welcomed OAC to the Equinix ecosystem.
“This partnership illustrates how Equinix enables the critical infrastructure that powers the internet, and we look forward to a long relationship together as Perth is poised to become a major hub,” he said.
The OAC Landing Stations in PE2 and MC1 provide organizations with access to a dense ecosystem of networks and the lowest latency and most direct path between Australia and onward into Europe.
In 2021, Equinix expanded its Perth campus with the opening of our third IBX data centre, named PE3. This investment ensures we continue to meet growing customer demands for private low-latency connectivity and access to essential infrastructure to support their digital transformation journeys through Platform Equinix®.
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