Singtel, SubPartners and team up for new Perth to submarine cable link

31 March 2016 – Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra jointly announced today that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build a new international submarine cable, APX-West, connecting Perth and Singapore.

The new APX-West submarine cable is expected to begin construction by the end of July 2016 and is scheduled to be completed in 2018. Once completed, the new submarine cable will span more than 4,500 kilometres carrying traffic between and Singapore.

The new cable will incorporate two fibre pairs providing two-way data transmission and each pair will have a minimum design capacity of 10 Terabits per second. The cable will terminate in facilities operated by the consortium members in Singapore and Australia significantly reducing costs and permitting times.

Bevan Slattery, SubPartners founder and CEO said, “The MOU is a major milestone for the project, with the foundation parties including Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra committing to purchase the entire available capacity on the system.

"The APX-West system is a consortium cable with all the major players having access to ownership economics at a fraction of the cost of private cable ownership. This is a unique commercial model for the Perth-Singapore route that will satisfy the ongoing bandwidth requirements of both network operators and internet content hosts.”

Ooi Seng Keat, Vice President, Carrier Services, Group Enterprise at Singtel said, “The current data bridge between Singapore and Perth is carried by the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable. The APX-West cable will be a new data superhighway to expand data connectivity and capacity between Singapore and Australia, providing network redundancy and the lowest latency from Australia to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Today Singtel has one of the most extensive submarine cable infrastructures in the Asia Pacific region. With these capabilities, the Singtel Group, including , can meet customers’ growing data requirements for bandwidth-intensive applications such as unified communications, enterprise data exchange, internet TV and online gaming.”

Darrin Webb, Telstra’s Executive Director International Operations and Services said “The MOU is a significant step forward in building what would be a valuable addition to Telstra’s subsea network, which is one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific. As consumers and businesses continue to embrace online products and services, such as video streaming and cloud, the demand for international connectivity continues to rise, creating a strong case for building this new cable.”

Media contact:

Singtel Media Contact: Mr Sonny Phua, Tel: +65 6838 6527 or HP: +65 8511 7996 [email protected]

Subpartners Media Contact: Dee Apostolova, +61 423 015 556 or [email protected]

Telstra Media contact: Michael Zappone + 61 438 004 959 or [email protected]

About Singtel Singtel is Asia's leading communications and ICT solutions group, providing a portfolio of services from next-generation communication, technology services to infotainment to both consumers and businesses. For consumers, Singtel delivers a complete and integrated suite of services, including mobile, broadband and TV. For businesses, Singtel offers a complementary array of workforce mobility solutions, data hosting, cloud, network infrastructure, analytics and cyber-security capabilities. The Group has presence in Asia, Australia and Africa and reaches over 595 million mobile customers in 25 countries. Its infrastructure and technology services for businesses span 21 countries, with more than 200 direct points of presence in 160 cities. For more information, please visit www.singtel.com.

Optus is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Singtel Group and services over ten million customers each day. It provides a broad range of communications services including mobile, telephony, business network services, internet and satellite services and subscription television. For more information, please visit www.optus.com.au.

About SubPartners SubPartners is a dynamic company committed to delivering significant infrastructure projects through an innovative model of trusted relationships and partnerships. Founded by some of the industries most experienced and trusted telecommunications entrepreneurs, SubPartners has the relationships, experience and access to funding necessary to take major telecommunications infrastructure projects from concept to reality. For more information visit www.subpartners.net.

About Telstra Telstra is a leading telecommunications and information services company. We offer a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets in Australia, operating the largest mobile and Wi-Fi networks. Globally, we provide end-to-end solutions including managed network services, global connectivity, cloud, voice, colocation, conferencing and satellite solutions. We have licenses in Asia, Europe and the United States and offer access to more than 2,000 points of presence across the globe. For more information visit www.telstra.com.