STL and Vocus partner on Project Horizon

Digital network integrator Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) has announced a collaboration with Vocus Group for Project Horizon in Western Australia. Under the partnership, STL will provide high-strength optical fibre cables for Vocus’s intercapital network extension program. The deal strengthens the companies’ relationship, where STL previously provided its Opticonn optical networking solutions for brownfield network build projects.

Project Horizon will see Vocus deploy the first competitive fibre backbone between Perth and Port Hedland, and is the first major infrastructure project under Vocus’s $1 billion investment program. When complete, Project Horizon will close the final gap in Vocus’s national fibre backbone connecting all mainland capitals. Horizon will also interconnect with two high-capacity submarine cables in Port Hedland, establishing Australia’s north as a new hub for domestic and international data.

As a fibre partner for Project Horizon, STL will support Vocus’s network rollout with a state-of-the-art design, combined with high tensile and crush strength cable technology. The cables have a design life of more than 30 years, ensuring Project Horizon will continue to deliver high-capacity connectivity through the Pilbara until the 2050s even in harsh environmental conditions.

“Project Horizon is Vocus’s largest fibre infrastructure project, and will provide the first competitive fibre through Australia’s resources region. The network has been designed with transmission capacity of 38 terabits per second per fibre pair. STL’s optical solutions provide an efficient path for Vocus to upgrade and support higher-capacity wavelengths at lower incremental costs, and will play an important role in delivering high-speed and low-latency fibre infrastructure in Australia,” said Kevin Russell, Group CEO, Vocus Group.

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