OAC sets 2021 completion date as it enters contract in force status
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OAC sets 2021 completion date as it enters contract in force status

OAC Bevan Slattery.jpg

SUB.CO has announced that its Oman Australia Cable (OAC) project has entered contract in force (CIF) status.

The news coincides with confirmation that the final system connection will be completed in December 2021.

“I am delighted that OAC is now CIF and importantly we have been able to secure the required manufacturing and marine installation assets with SubCom to allow for a targeted 2021 completion date,” said Bevan Slattery, founder of SUB.CO.

“With a series of other major submarine cable projects looking to enter CIF status in the next quarter, this is a tremendous coup for the project and reduces project implementation risks and funding costs significantly.”

Once completed, the 9,700km system will directly connect Muscat, Oman to Perth Australia. The OAC cable system design is a three-fibre pair system with an option to upgrade to four fibre pairs based upon final demand. It also has branch units designed to potentially extend the system into Salalah, Oman and Djibouti in the future.

"Once deployed, OAC will enable high-capacity, low-latency transmission and open a much-sought route between Australia and EMEA,” said David Coughlan, CEO of SubCom.

“SubCom is very pleased to be moving forward with this project and we are confident in our ability to implement what will be a powerful and reliable system on behalf of SUB.CO."

The OAC system was announced October 2019. At the time, the system was developed in in response to the growing investment being made in Perth in submarine cables and cloud hosting facilities.

In the same year three new submarine cable systems were completed (ASC, Indigo West and Indigo Central) and two new major data centre facilities were also commissioned (NEXTDC P2 and Equinix PE2).

Capacity spoke exclusively to Bevan Slattery back in November about the benefits of the new route and how subsea is becoming increasingly attractive for investment players.

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