What you need to know about INDIGO: Improving connectivity speed, reliability between ASEAN and Australia

Home to more than 650 million people, the ASEAN region represents a sparkling opportunity for Australia’s businesses. It is one of Australia’s top three trading partners, accounting for approximately 15 per cent of the country’s total trade.

Counting among its 10 member states some of the world’s fastest growing economies, like Philippines and Vietnam, the World Economic Forum predicts ASEAN will become the world’s fifth largest economy by 2020.

That economy is being super-charged by digital connectivity. According to TeleGeography, bandwidth demand between Asia and Australia will reach 75Tbps by 2025.

Australia’s legacy cable systems, however, can no longer satisfy customer expectations for reliable, fast international connectivity. To better keep pace with customer demands and accommodate future growth, telecommunications providers have been working to roll out new and improved infrastructure.

In September, Telstra and its partners completed laying the first section of the INDIGO West subsea cable at Floreat Beach in Perth. On-track to be ready for service by mid-2019, the INDIGO cable will help provide lower latency and enhanced reliability between Australia and ASEAN.

So, what do you need to know about INDIGO? 

Telstra will offer the fastest connection between Singapore and Sydney

The INDIGO West cable’s two-fibre pairs use coherent optical technology and Telstra’s terrestrial low-latency network to provide the fastest route connecting Singapore and Sydney (via Perth). Telstra’s customers will be able to connect at up to 36 terabits per second, the equivalent of simultaneously streaming millions of movies a second.

The high speeds will underscore Telstra’s lead in its network in the region, which has been recognised with the highest product scores for High Capacity and Low Latency networks in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Network Services, Asia Pacific Report from 2015 to 2018.

Leverages Telstra’s engineering expertise and scale to connect to Singapore and beyond

Covering approximately 9,000km, the development of the INDIGO cable has leveraged Telstra’s engineering expertise and the scale of our Australian network. INDIGO West’s 4,600km length connects Singapore, Perth and Sydney, with two additional fibre pairs connecting Singapore and Jakarta via a branching unit.

Supports the networks of the future with cost-effective, reliable, low-latency and diverse connectivity

As innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data analytics spread, demand for direct, fast connectivity between Singapore and Australia is growing exponentially. The (software-defined) networks of the future require the cost-effective, reliable, high-performance connectivity that Telstra’s INDIGO West system provides.

Telstra owns 25% of the INDIGO system’s spectrum between Singapore and Perth, supplementing our program of investments in a significant range of Asian cable assets. This makes us uniquely positioned to fulfil the needs of organisations connecting to a growing ASEAN, such as large and emerging cloud and content companies, global and regional mobile and service providers, as well as multinational corporations – enabling them to thrive in a brilliantly connected future.