The Liberal Government is committed to creating a connected and empowered Tasmanian economy and the IT sector is vital to our long term plan for the future of Tasmania.
I am pleased to see Telecommunications Infrastructure company SubPartners’ commitment to Tasmania with the announcement that a submarine cable will be rolled out from Perth to Sydney with planned branches into Hobart, Adelaide and Melbourne.
The 5,300 kilometre fibre-optic “Asia Pacific Express-Central” (APX-C) cable is scheduled to be ready for service in 2016.
This will be a new link for Australia, and in particular Tasmania, into high-speed, high-capacity global networks.
This is an important step in attracting and growing IT-intensive industries along with the investment and skilled jobs those industries bring.
At the moment, Tasmania has two fibre connection providers in Basslink and Telstra. A third provider entering the market would improve choice, competitiveness and redundancy.
The Liberals have long recognised that a third fibre service is a crucial element in plans to make the State an attractive location for data storage and services.
The Liberal Government has already been in contact with SubPartners and we have met with the company this week to discuss the project.
The project is also supported by the Federal Government, with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying this cable would “radically change connectivity in and out of Australia”.
This project is of great significance to Tasmania and we will work cooperatively with SubPartners to encourage this important project.
Michael Ferguson, Minister for Information Technology and Innovation
