The Torquay CLS continues to take shape following the final delivery of Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) equipment. In total, just over 6 tonnes of Power Feeding Equipment (PFE) will be installed at the site, marking a major milestone in preparing the station for the SMAP cable.

Installation of the PFE has now commenced, ensuring the station is fully equipped to support the high-capacity subsea cable. This progress moves us another step closer to operational readiness, ahead of the cable landing scheduled in the coming month.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue laying cable, installing equipment, and bringing the SMAP system closer to completion.

We’re thrilled to be awarded ‘Best Subsea Innovation’ for SMAP by Capacity Media at last night’s Global Connectivity Awards in London! The awards celebrate the people and companies advancing the world’s digital infrastructure, bringing together industry leaders, innovators and investors in London each year to connect, collaborate and recognise global achievement.

Thanks to Paddy Cunningham for collecting the award on behalf of SUBCO. Huge congratulations to the incredible finalists in our category. 

The SMAP marine lay is progressing well, with more than 50% of the total cable length and repeaters now installed. This marks a major milestone in the build of Australia’s new east–west subsea connection.

Following successful deep-water installation from Perth to Adelaide, plough burial has now commenced on the Adelaide branch. This process carefully embeds the cable into the seabed for long-term protection and reliability, marking a key stage in completing the southern route.

Each milestone brings SMAP closer to delivering a new level of diversity and resilience to Australia’s digital infrastructure.

The ASN team recently completed installation of the Power Feeding Equipment (PFE) for the SMAP cable at our Adelaide CLS.  

This equipment is a pivotal operational component of the system, and a major step closer to go-live for the project. PFEs provide constant high-voltage DC power to subsea repeaters, ensuring data travels reliably across thousands of kilometres. Modern PFEs are designed for high reliability, safety, and efficiency, with redundant systems and fault-detection features to keep operations running even in challenging environments. 

From supporting traditional telecommunications networks to powering hybrid systems with oceanographic sensors, PFEs are a critical piece of the technology that keeps the world connected beneath the waves. 

We’d like to thank the ASN team along with LinkTech for their work at our site, next stop: Torquay CLS.  

With the Adelaide Cable Landing Station (CLS) making excellent progress, we’re thrilled to announce the mobilisation for our Adelaide backhaul routes—marking another major milestone in the expansion of our network across South Australia.

The back haul project will connect the CLS to the Adelaide CBD via two diverse routes, delivering greater resilience and capacity to the region. This critical step ensures that the SMAP hypercable network will seamlessly integrate with Adelaide’s core digital infrastructure, supporting the city’s growing role as a hub for data, connectivity, and innovation.

Over the next two weeks, our teams will work to finalise the route designs, setting the stage to begin hauling in November.

We’re excited to partner with Mirait Technologies and their trusted sub-contractors to deliver this complex build. Their expertise and collaboration are vital to helping us bring this next phase of the project to life.

This mobilisation represents more than just progress on a construction timeline—it’s a leap forward in strengthening Adelaide’s connectivity and unlocking new opportunities for businesses, communities, and industries across South Australia.

We’re pleased to share that the Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) works at Voss Circuit (Torquay) have been successfully completed, and the site was officially handed back to GORCAPA on 26 September 2025.

Over the coming weeks, GORCAPA will carry out returfing and site restoration, preparing the reserve to reopen ahead of the busy summer season. This will ensure the community can continue to enjoy the area with minimal long-term impact from the project.

Works at Voss Circuit began on 19 May 2025 and were completed on 26 September 2025, spanning 131 days. The team successfully installed 2,400 metres of HDD beneath the reserve, completing the drilling during the winter months as planned to minimise disruption to local residents, reserve users, and the wider community.

After the successful fit-outs of our Cable Landing Stations (CLS) in Perth and Sydney, our team set out once again—this time to Adelaide. With lessons learned from previous projects and a refined approach, we were ready to take on the next challenge.

We’re back with SUBCO Senior Network Engineer – Rick Carter, who gives us an insight of what went into the Adelaide CLS fit-out.
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With the experience of the Perth and Sydney CLS fit-outs under our belts, Bob Purdon, Sheraz Babar, and I hit the road again to begin work on the Adelaide CLS.

The Adelaide project shared many similarities with the previous fit-outs but came with some notable differences. The key distinction was that we own and operate the building housing the Adelaide CLS, whereas the Perth and Sydney stations are located within established data centres. This meant the team and our contractors faced a more extensive implementation, covering power, environmental systems, networking, and security infrastructure.

As with the other sites, the SUBCO team installed and commissioned:

• PDUs

• Rack locks and reed switches

• Temperature monitoring

• DC power rectifiers

• DCN and related patching

• In-rack LED lighting

• In-rack access control

• In-rack cameras and controllers

• Cable management

• Comprehensive labelling for cables, FTPs, and devices

While we worked on the above, our contractors focused on installing mains and UPS/generator power, air-conditioning, structured fibre and copper cabling between the racks and ODF, and the security camera network throughout the facility.

The DCN installation in Adelaide was larger than at the previous two sites due to the increased number of cameras and monitoring points required for our own facility. While on-site, we also commissioned the first of two diverse out-of-band services for connectivity to the rest of the DCN. The second service will be commissioned in the coming weeks.

Overall, this installation was more efficient and quicker than the previous projects. By applying the lessons learned from earlier CLS fit-outs, we introduced a new process for installing equipment, cabling, and devices into the racks – streamlining our workflow and achieving smoother delivery.

Team SUBCO are on the ground in Singapore for Submarine Networks World held at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre. This is one of the premier global gatherings for the subsea communications industry – bringing together over 1,000 attendees, 130+ speakers, and many of the world’s leading submarine-network players, vendors, and decision makers. Yesterday, our Founder & Co-CEO, Bevan Slattery, took to the stage for a keynote presentation on the tech behind Australia’s most secure subsea systems and our latest project – SMAP. 

South Australia has officially marked the beginning of its first-ever subsea cable, with the arrival of the world’s largest-capacity cable laying vessel, Ile d’Yeu, in Port Adelaide.

Premier Peter Malinauskas joined SUBCO Founder and CEO Bevan Slattery to welcome the vessel, which will begin construction on the $400 million, 5,000 km SMAP system.

Premier Malinauskas described the project as a “landmark moment for South Australia”, highlighting the transformative potential for data-intensive industries such as defence, energy, space, and manufacturing.

Slattery emphasised that the Adelaide landing represents the next step following Perth’s successful connection in July and noted the historic nature of SMAP as the first hyper cable of its kind on Australian shores.

The Ile d’Yeu, operated by Alcatel Submarine Networks, is a 147-metre vessel purpose-built for long-haul deployments. Equipped with a 35-tonne seabed plough and more than 8,500 tonnes of cable-loading capacity, it will lay the infrastructure that underpins Australia’s digital future.

With construction now underway in Adelaide, South Australia is set to be directly connected to the global digital ecosystem for the first time – a development poised to drive economic growth, innovation, and jobs well into the future.

All civil conduit and manhole works have now been successfully completed in Torquay, between the beach manhole and the cable landing station. The final stage of subduct installation is currently underway, marking one of the last key steps before we can transition into the next phase.

This achievement is the result of months of coordinated effort by the project team, who have not only kept the program on track but also carefully managed community impacts along the way. By working with local stakeholders and timing activities to align with the quieter winter months, we’ve been able to minimise disruption as much as possible while maintaining momentum.

The completion of this stretch in Torquay is a critical part of building the link between land and sea, enabling the SMAP cable to be seamlessly integrated into the wider network. It’s an exciting point in the build, with the groundwork now set for installations that follow.