Australian telco Telstra has installed a fiber optic cable across the bed of Sydney Harbor as part of its inter-city fiber network.

According to a LinkedIn post from CommsDay, the Australian telco has laid the fiber optic cable between Dawes Point and Blues Point.

The company’s intercity network will see 14,000km of cable laid across 10 fiber routes, connecting Australia’s five major state capital cities.

Telstra added its cable has a capacity of 55Tbps per fiber pair.

The project was first announced in February 2022, with construction commencing a month later. In August 2022, Telstra announced the first five priority routes.

In November last year, the inter-city network was expanded to include five additional routes from Darwin to Adelaide and Sydney to Brisbane.

Telstra said it currently has the largest fiber and duct network in Australia with 250,000km of fiber optic cable.

TPG deploys along similar route

TPG Telecom also announced this week that it has deployed a subsea cable across the same route in Sydney Harbour.

TPG Telecom’s cable spans from McMahon’s Point to Dawes Point.

First announced two years ago, the company said the new route will increase redundancy and diversity across the harbor.

“The completion of our Sydney Harbour cable project dramatically increases the capacity of our network, creating greater connectivity and speeds for our customers across the Harbour,” said Giovanni Chiarelli, CTO at TPG Telecom.

TPG Telecom signed a network-sharing agreement with Optus to extend their respective network coverage in Australia last month.

A similar deal had been mooted between TPG and Telstra last year. The proposed deal would have seen Telstra buy spectrum and transmission towers from TPG, while TPG would have kept selling 4G and 5G coverage using Telstra infrastructure.

The proposal was rejected by the Australian Competition Tribunal on the grounds that it would harm competition. Both telcos agreed not to appeal the ruling.