SubPartners Obtains Cable for APX-West

SubPartners Pty Ltd announced that TE SubCom has reserved 3,300km of SL17 submarine cable for use within the APX-West cable system.

In preparation for the deployment of APX-West, the early manufacture by TE SubCom of 3,300km of the required cable demonstrates the collective commitment SubPartners & TE SubCom share for building these systems.

Delivering both systems within 24 months is key to meeting the expectations of the foundation customers supporting APX-West & APX-Central; Singapore to Perth and Perth to Sydney respectively. The secured cable along with most major permits already attained means that SubPartners can finalise the few remaining commercial agreements while committing to its installation timelines.

CEO & Co-Founder of SubPartners, Bevan Slattery, stated: “TE SubCom have shown a strong commitment to the APX projects from day one. The manufacture of this cable further highlights the strong partnership we have developed with the TE SubCom team, stemming from the PPC-1 Sydney to Guam cable system in 2008. To meet the aggressive timelines of our customers it was imperative to secure this cable for the APX builds.“

Chief Network Architect, Lee Harper, said: “Having the submarine cable reserved and ready for APX-West has been key to committing to program timelines for our cornerstone customers.”  Harper completed the factory acceptance testing of the cable for SubPartners, a process he conducted for PIPE Networks’ PPC-1 cable system five years ago. “It was quite humbling to be back at the same factory, working with the same team, performing acceptance procedures on another cable project for Bevan.”

The constructed cable represents almost the entire deep-water cable component for APX-West and provides SubPartners with a significant head start on their APX-West project as it reduces significantly the time between Marine Route Survey and cable installation.

APX-West is a four fibre-pair system using the latest state of the art ultra-long haul design delivering much needed capability and resiliency to the region. It will connect Perth, Australia to Changi North, Singapore with planned branches to Jakarta, Indonesia and Christmas Island. The system is approximately 4,700km long and has an initial design capacity of up to 32Tbp/s. It is expected to be Ready for Service (RFS) Q2 2016.

Press Release, June 18, 2014