New Milestone reached in Intercity Fibre Network Build

Our intercity fibre network project crosses harbours, deserts and mountainous forests as we reach our latest milestone.
 

Telstra InfraCo’s intercity fibre network project  passed another milestone in June  as we completed around 1800 kilometres of fibre construction.

Our recent progress has demonstrated the complexity of building national fibre infrastructure in Australia.  Crews have been active in major metro areas, remote deserts and mountainous country.

Crossing the iconic Sydney Harbour

Last month Telstra InfraCo crews working in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge laid approximately 1 kilometre of fibre optic cable across the bed of Sydney Harbour between Dawes Point and Blues Point. 

This is a milestone for our network because it connects the Sydney CBD to the St Leonards exchange on the lower north shore. The St Leonards exchange is the meeting point of the Sydney to Canberra, Sydney to Brisbane and Sydney to Perth intercity fibre routes. 

The connection at St Leonards will help us as we aim to get the Sydney to Canberra route live in the next twelve months.  It’s also a fundamental step in our progress on the other routes. 

While this is not the only water crossing in the project, it was one of the most complex. Sydney Harbour has busy shipping routes and we had to work around Sydney’s nighttime VIVID festival as we put cable through the CBD. We spent months planning this operation, and coordinating with a range of stakeholders to ensure we could lay the cable without disrupting the city too much. Divers helped lay the cable, while we coordinated with the Harbour Master to manage marine traffic.

We also had to work with Prysmian, the cable manufacturer, to have specialised armour-plated cable made that would survive the underwater conditions.

Building continues across Australia’s diverse landscape

Sydney Harbour is just one of many places where we are active in building the intercity fibre network. We currently have 15 live construction sites on five routes across the country. Some of these crews work in the most rugged and remote parts of the country.

We’re working across the Nullarbor and we’re also doing work in the Snowy Mountain capital of Cooma, outside of Canberra. Such diverse environments provide completely different challenges for our teams. But they are tackling the complexities of the build with passion and ingenuity.
 

We’re connecting Australian communities to each other and the world

Telstra’s intercity fibre project is a significant national infrastructure build to support Australia’s digital future. It’s an investment into our nation’s growth, connectivity and prosperity that responds to the growing demand for high capacity, ultra-low latency, reliable and resilient fibre networks.

We are investing up to $1.6 billion into several key fibre initiatives: the intercity fibre network project, expanding the fibre footprint in the Pilbara, and partnering with Viasat for the Viasat-3 ground network. When complete, the intercity fibre network will deliver almost 14,000 kilometres of high-capacity, ultra-low latency fibre. It will connect Australia’s major capital cities from north to south and east to west, and provide access points to connect to regional and remote locations.  

Together, our intercity fibre network routes will connect the east coast of Australia to the west coast, seamlessly transitioning the dry to the wet and beyond, via Telstra’s extensive international subsea cable network.

The cornerstone of our network is the construction of our dual fibre paths between capital cities – an express path (our pink cable) and a foundation path (our blue cable).  

The express path is designed for those seeking high-speed, long-distance connections. The foundation path provides access points to connect to regional and remote locations.  

Our foundation path is an important part of our network building story. That’s why the network infrastructure we are creating will allow for future connectivity to the regional areas it passes through.  These network access points enable digital connectivity that can help bring economic investment into regional areas. 
 

More routes are coming

We are in the planning stage of another five routes. One of these is the critical Darwin to Adelaide route which is already attracting significant interest because of the important connection it offers to the rest of the world.

Stay tuned for more updates as our intercity fibre network grows daily.