After more than 1,000 days of surveying, manufacturing, installing, and testing, SMAP has reached provisional acceptance – the final validation milestone before the system is declared ready for service.

It’s a significant moment. Provisional acceptance confirms that Australia’s newest transcontinental subsea cable system has been independently tested and verified to specification across its full 5,000-kilometre route, connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.

Provisional acceptance is the point at which the system supplier – in SMAP’s case, Alcatel Submarine Networks – formally hands over a validated, fully commissioned system to the cable owner. It follows the completion of acceptance testing across every segment: optical performance, repeater characterisation, branching unit switching, and end-to-end system trials.

For SMAP, that process has been running in parallel with the final stages of terrestrial backhaul and SLTE integration across all four landing points. The system is now in its final phase before commercial launch.

With provisional acceptance confirmed, the focus now shifts to SLTE integration and final preparation for ready for service. SMAP’s RFS is targeted for June 2026.

As SMAP approaches RFS, the customers who backed it early are starting to talk about why.

Matthew Enger, CEO and Founder of Leaptel – one of Australia’s fastest-growing ISPs – sat down with us to share what drew him to SMAP and what he expects it to deliver for his network and his customers.

It’s a straightforward question with a considered answer. For Leaptel, the decision came down to what the infrastructure actually offers: a fully armoured subsea route connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, purpose-built for the demands of a modern network operator. Sixteen fibre pairs. SDM technology. Over 400Tb/s of total capacity. And 25 times the energy efficiency of existing legacy inter-capital systems.

For ISPs building for growth, the difference between legacy terrestrial infrastructure and a next-generation subsea system isn’t marginal – it’s structural. SMAP was designed with that in mind.

Watch the full conversation below.

Eighteen months ago, we sat down with SUBCO Founder Bevan Slattery to talk about why Australia needed a new kind of cable and the design of SMAP, and now, we’re on the final stretch to Ready for Service.

Five thousand kilometres. Four capital cities. Australia’s first Hyper cable, fully armoured end-to-end, delivering over 400Tb/s of capacity with 25 times the efficiency of legacy inter-capital systems.

For Sydney and Perth, SMAP strengthens existing international gateways. For Adelaide and Melbourne, it delivers something that hasn’t existed before – geographically diverse subsea connectivity, purpose-built and permanent.

The vision Bevan outlined hasn’t changed. It’s now sitting on the ocean floor, ready to light up.

SMAP’s backhaul network connecting the Adelaide CLS to the CBD is now complete, with final testing and commissioning well underway.

Connecting the subsea and terrestrial networks, this milestone completes the end-to-end infrastructure chain that underpins SMAP’s connectivity offering in South Australia.

With backhaul now in place, SMAP’s Adelaide infrastructure is ready for final system testing and commissioning as we move closer to full system RFS.

With the cooler, wetter weather arriving in Torquay, the final reinstatement activities at Voss Circuit are now complete.

Over the past two weeks, the GORCAPA (Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority) team carried out full area returfing – the last major step in restoring the site following SMAP’s cable landing works. The area will be open for full public use in the coming months.

This marks the end of more than 12 months of coordinated construction and reinstatement activity at Voss Circuit. From trench works through to final landscaping, returning the site to its natural condition has been a priority throughout.

SUBCO would like to again thank GORCAPA for their support, professionalism, and close coordination across every stage of the build and completion phase. With SMAP on track for Ready for Service in June 2026, updates like this mark important progress milestones as the system moves toward commercial operation.

After re-turfing

Before re-turfing

The terrestrial backhaul connecting SMAP’s Melbourne (Torquay) landing to our PoPs is moving fast. We’re now at 92% completion – and the progress made over the couple of months reflects a serious team effort across design, permitting, procurement, and civil works.

The cross-functional team has delivered across every front simultaneously:

• Final designs locked in – confirming the exact cable routing and specifications through the VicTrack rail corridor between Melbourne and Geelong.
• Complex permits secured – working within an active rail corridor means navigating a demanding approvals environment. Those permits are now in hand.
• 47km of cable installed – that’s over 50% of the full cable route, laid within the rail corridor, with civil and installation works progressing at pace.
• Interconnection links completed – the segments linking the rail corridor to our PoPs in both Torquay and Melbourne are already in the ground and done.

Routing backhaul through the VicTrack rail corridor delivers a geographically diverse, protected route that avoids the congestion and risk exposure of existing road-based conduit networks. For a system like SMAP, where route diversity and resilience are design principles, not afterthoughts, this matters.

With over 92% complete and the interconnection links already done, the focus shifts to finishing the remaining cable installation and progressing toward end-to-end testing and full network integration.

On 1 April 2026, in the Bass Strait off Torquay, the SMAP final splice was completed – marking the end of nine months of marine installation.

Segment 2D: the last link

The final splice closed out Segment 2D – a short but critical section of cable in the Bass Strait connecting the two branching units either side of Torquay. The West End of the cable had been resting on the seabed for approximately a month following the previous lay campaign. Our team recovered it early on the morning of 1 April, bringing both cable ends aboard simultaneously.

Pre-splice testing

Before any cutting begins, both cable ends go through a two-stage test regime. First, optical testing – verifying every fibre against its baseline performance to confirm no degradation during the seabed soak. Second, an insulation resistance (IR) test – an electrical check of the power feeding conductor to confirm the high-voltage DC element is performing to spec. The West End was held under controlled tension by the vessel’s Linear Cable Engine (LCE) throughout. Both tests cleared before the splice could begin.

Cable preparation

With testing complete, both ends were prepared for jointing – outer armour layers, bedding, and insulation removed sequentially to expose the fibre bundles. Both ends were then cleaned, measured, and fitted with the external anchor assemblies that form the structural housing of the joint. From the start of cable prep to the first splice: approximately eight hours.

The splice

SMAP carries 32 fibre pairs across its trunk. Each fibre is spliced individually in the vessel’s joint bay under controlled conditions, using fusion splicing equipment to produce a low-loss, mechanically protected joint.

The moment the first fibre fused, there was a single contiguous optical path from Sydney to Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. The remaining 31 splices followed through the day, with all 32 complete by 9:00 PM.

Once all fibres were spliced, they were carefully coiled around the central former inside the joint housing and the joint was sealed. At that point, onboard testing is no longer possible — the system is closed.

End-to-end system testing

With the joint sealed, we deployed teams simultaneously to the Sydney Cable Landing Station and the Perth Cable Landing Station to perform end-to-end trunk testing across the full length of SMAP. Validating the final splice and confirming the system was performing to specification.

The final bight

On the afternoon of 2 April, the joint box was lifted by crane and the final loop of cable – the final bight – was paid out over the stern. As the joint box and cable loop descended to the seabed, all 5,000 kilometres of SMAP were in the water.

SMAP is now in system completion, with acceptance testing underway ahead of RFS.

SMAP marine installation has hit a landmark milestone with all 59 repeaters now in the water!

With deployment of the final repeater, attention now turns to the final steps of marine installation. Next up is the Branching Unit (BU) integration at Torquay – connecting Melbourne (Torquay) and Sydney via the Torquay East X-BU – followed by the final splice to bring the full subsea route together.

Once marine install wraps and commissioning is completed across all segments, the system will be formally handed over from Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), ready for SUBCO to deploy its transmission equipment and prepare the network for service.

As SMAP moves steadily toward ready for service, SUBCO has announced a significant expansion of data centre access points across Australia’s four major capital cities – giving customers more ways to connect to the domestic and international cable network.

The new locations span Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth, with access now available at:

Sydney

• Equinix SY5 (Primary)
• NextDC S2 (Primary)
• NextDC S1 / S3 / S6
• Equinix SY1 / SY3 / SY4
• AirTrunk SYD2

Melbourne

• Equinix ME2 (Primary)
• NextDC M1 / M3 (Primary)
• CDC BK1 (Primary)

Adelaide

• Equinix AE1 (Primary)
• NextDC A1 (Primary)

Perth

• NextDC P2 (Primary)
• Equinix PE2 / PE3 (Primary)
• NextDC P1

Non-primary locations are extended by dark fibre.

This expansion reflects our commitment to building resilient, diverse infrastructure and something we continue to evolve – meeting customers where it matters to them.

Stay tuned for further updates as we move into the final stages of system completion.

Construction may be finished, but before a system is declared ready for service, every fibre must pass rigorous validation. We’re now conducting final bi-directional Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) testing to ensure the entire span is performing exactly as engineered.

OTDR testing allows us to measure fibre attenuation, splice integrity, and identify any reflections or anomalies along the route. By testing from both ends of the span, we eliminate directional bias and capture the averaged “true” loss for every splice.

This bi-directional approach ensures:

Accurate measurement of splice loss
Verification of overall link attenuation
Detection of any irregularities before service activation
Full compliance with design specifications

The result is a clean, validated fibre path that meets performance expectations.

The final averaged loss figures provide definitive confirmation that the link is ready for live traffic. Every splice point is accounted for, every segment measured, and the entire span characterised end-to-end.

With testing now underway, we’re one step closer to lighting the system and delivering capacity with the confidence that the infrastructure beneath it has been validated to the highest standard.

Stay tuned as we move into the next phase.