Australia Singapore Cable

Overview

The Australia Singapore Cable (ASC) is a submarine cable system connecting Australia to Singapore across four landing points. It entered service in September 2018, built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and owned outright by Vocus Group — making it one of the few major regional cables held by a single Australian carrier rather than a consortium of international operators.

The Route

The corridor between Australia and Singapore is among the most consequential in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore functions as a principal hub for onward connectivity into Southeast Asia, South Asia, and beyond, while Australia's reliance on submarine cables for international bandwidth is near-total. A direct link between the two allows traffic to move without transiting intermediate cable systems, reducing latency and giving Vocus direct control over capacity on the path.

Capacity and Build

The ASC was designed with a capacity of 60 Tbit/s, positioning it firmly in the high-capacity tier at the time of its construction. Alcatel Submarine Networks, one of the established names in undersea cable engineering, handled the build. The system spans four landing points across its two served countries, though the precise geographic routing and landing station locations are not publicly documented in full.

Ownership Context

Vocus Group's decision to commission a wholly owned cable rather than join a shared consortium reflected a broader strategy to control infrastructure rather than lease capacity from third parties. Sole ownership carries both the full cost burden and the full commercial upside — capacity can be sold wholesale, used to anchor enterprise and carrier contracts, or deployed internally across the group's network.

Regional Significance

The ASC sits alongside several other systems on the Australia-to-Asia corridor, a route that has attracted sustained investment given the volume of traffic between Australian networks and the major Asian internet exchanges. Its direct ownership model distinguishes it from consortium-built neighbours on the same corridor.