Sunshine Coast invests $35m in cable project

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Council is investing $35 million to become the second Australian landing site for a new 36 Tbps subsea cable linking Australia with Guam and Japan.

Under the project, a 550 km branch will be used to connect the JGA cable, which will span between Sydney and Minami-Boso in Japan, to a new landing station at the Sunshine Coast’s Maroochydore City Centre.

The JGA cable is being built by RTI Connectivity in a consortium with Google and Australia’s AARNet.

It will be divided into the JGA South leg, linking Australia and Guam, and the JGA North between Guam and Japan. At Guam, the cable will be able to cross-connect with the Hong Kong-Guam (HK-G) and Southeast Asia-US (SEA-US) cable systems.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said the cable project, which is being funded with the support of a $15 million state government grant under the $150 million Jobs and Regional Growth Fund, promises to deliver significant benefits for the region.

“The Sunshine Coast is a rapidly growing region and this project will help drive the continued diversification of our local economy, generate revenue and position our region to attract new business and investment, particularly organisations with big data requirements,” he said.

“Our studies have indicated that this project will create up to 864 new jobs for our local region and could add $927 million to the Queensland economy.”

Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick added that the project will “open up enormous opportunities” for the state, help bypass the requirement to route local traffic through Sydney and help address potential limitations for Australia’s internet connectivity.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/alxpin

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