Australian Edge module maker DXN is to deliver a cable landing station (CLS) to the south Asian nation of Timor-Leste.
In an announcement to the ASX this week, the company announced it had signed a contract with the Government of Timor-Leste for the installation of a new CLS.
The deal, valued at US$1.4 million (AU$2.1m) will be used for the Timor-Leste South Submarine Cable (TLSSC) project and deployed in the capital Dili. Delivery is expected by April 2024.
“DXN is delighted to be selected for this important nation-building project for the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. This is the country’s first international cable landing station which we are proud to be part of,” DXN CEO Shalini Lagrutta said. “The cable landing station will be prefabricated and built in Australia, exported to Dili and thereafter installed and commissioned for connection with the NWCS in Australia.”
The TLSSC project aims to construct a submarine cable connection between Díli and the North-West Cable System (NWCS) which spans Darwin and Port Hedland. ASN is providing the cable.
The Vocus-owned NWCS was laid in 2016. The 2,100km cable also lands at Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island, just off the northern coast of Australia.
The Timor-Leste Government signed a contract with ASN for the cable in May 2022. The project is being partly funded (AU$7.2m) by the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP).
ASX-listed DXN currently operates three data centers across Australia and manufactures modular prefab data centers.
The company has delivered dozens of modules to customers including AngloAmerican, gold-miner Newcrest to a site in New South Wales, as well as Boeing, Covalent Lithium, and Pilbara Minerals in Western Australia.
DXN has previously delivered a landing station module to Sub.co on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for the Oman – Australia Cable, and to the island of Palau for the Meta/Google-led Echo subsea cable.
In other cable news:
- CommsDay reports RTI Connectivity and the RTI JGA Cable have been placed into receivership. I Squared Capital has reportedly bought the debt after a company formed by major Japanese banks financing the cable made the application to the Singapore High Court.
- In Hong Kong, SUNeVision and HKBN Group announced the commencement of operations of the TKO Connect cable. The 3km dual path cable links SUNeVision’s MEGA-i site in Chai Wan on Hong Kong island to its MEGA Plus facility in Tseung Kwan O in the New Territories.
- Vodafone has announced the 2Africa cable will land at a new cable landing station in Tympaki, Crete. The telco said the CLS will connect with the city of Heraklion via a new 30km of cable tubes and 280km of new optical fiber. The Crete landing is currently scheduled for completion by the second half of 2024.
- Vocus is asking the Australian Government to do more to protect the country’s subsea cables. The telco is requesting lawmakers declare more ‘cable protection zones’ across the country; these zones restrict or prohibit activities that could potentially damage cables.
Australia currently has three such zones – two in Sydney and one in Perth, both announced in 2007 – but the telco now has landings in Darwin and Port Hedland in protection zones and notes other operators are looking to land in Darwin.
“Vocus submits that the Government should make funding available to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to initiate the declaration of cable protection zones for the existing cables of national significance in Darwin, Port Hedland, and proposed cables landing in Melbourne and Brisbane,” the company said.
- Batelco has selected SubCom to manufacture and install the Al Khaleej cable.
- UAE telco Du is to be the landing partner for Cinturion's Trans Europe Asia System (TEAS) in the Emirates.
