1 July 2024
Telstra Infraco has laid a fibre optic cable across the bed of Sydney Harbour between Dawes Pt and Blues Pt in what it has described as a milestone for its planned Inter-City Fibre Network.
The installation comes several weeks after TPG Telecom laid fibre across a similar route.
The link is seen as key to Telstra’s plans because it connects the Sydney CBD to the St Leonards exchange on the lower north shore. According to Telstra Infraco project director Georgina Limbrey, this is a hub for interstate connections.
“St Leonards exchange is the meeting point of the Sydney to Canberra, the Sydney to Brisbane and then the Sydney to Perth routes. So it’s really important because we want Sydney to Canberra to be live twelve months from now. And then twelve months after that, Sydney to Perth, and then twelve months after that, Sydney to Brisbane. So, you know, this is quite a pivotal section,” she told the North Sydney Sun.
Sydney Harbour presents unique challenges for fibre laying, with planning dating back some six months. “There’s definitely a lot of coordination and logistics, as we had to obviously be granted this slot by the Harbour Master.”
“With the terrestrial cable that we’ve hauled under the CBD, we normally do that work at night, but with the Vivid festival on, we obviously had to work around that timing. We also had to coordinate with Prysmian, the cable manufacturer, to have specialised armour plated cable to be waterproof,” she added.
“We’re also doing work in Cooma, outside of Canberra, and whether it will be snowing every day is a factor. We’re working across the Nullarbor today, so we’ve also got another crew dealing with completely different challenges. They’re all complex, but this one, certainly from a coordination perspective, is tricky.”
The harbour route completed last week forms part of Telstra’s $1.6 billion investment into the 14,000km Inter City Fibre project announced in November 2023. The 1km section laid on the harbour floor yesterday adds to the already completed 1200km and is one of more than ten live construction sites across the country.
“We are currently building across five routes and are in the planning stage of another five routes, which will also include the all important Darwin to Adelaide route which is already attracting significant interest because of the important connections it presents to the rest of the world,” a Telstra spokesperson said.
“The cornerstone of our network is the construction of our dual fibre paths between capital cities – an express path on our pink cable and a foundation path—our blue cable,” the spokesperson added.
“This build replaces fibre that has been in the ground for almost 30 years and was put in place when we needed to send faxes.”
TPG ALSO BUILDS TO NORTH SYDNEY: The Telstra installation comes mere weeks after TPG Telecom laid its own fibre across the harbour, using a 1,728-fibre cable supplied by Prysmian. The TPG link also connects Dawes Pt to Blues Pt.
By laying the new fibre cable directly across the seabed of Sydney Harbour, TPG Telecom said it reduced the conventional land route for fibre installations by six times. “The completion of our Sydney Harbour Cable Project dramatically increases the capacity of our network, creating greater connectivity and speeds for our customers across the Harbour,” said TPG Telecom CTO Giovanni Chiarelli.
“This project will help future proof our network, improve reliability and ensure our customers consistently receive great connectivity even during periods of peak network usage.”
The new route also increases redundancy and diversity across the Harbour, with TPG Telecom owning and operating two separate links over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
“The successful completion of the project means an additional 1,728 fibres are now serving the high-data demands of businesses and consumers in North Sydney and the CBD,” a TPG spokesperson said.