JGA South is Ready for Service – 36 Tbps Interconnecting Australia, Asia and the United States

Singapore, 27 March 2020 – A consortium including RTI Connectivity Pte. Ltd. (RTI), AARNet Pty Ltd (AARNet) and Google announced that the construction of the Japan-Guam-Australia South Cable System (JGA South) has been successfully completed and is ready for service. The approximately 7,000-kilometer fiber optic submarine cable system between Piti, Guam and Sydney, Australia with a branch to the Sunshine Coast, will have an initial design capacity of more than 36 terabits per second (36 Tbps). The Sunshine Coast branch is the first undersea fiber optic cable to land on the east coast of Australia outside of Sydney.

Cable Ship Île-de-Bréhat bringing the cable ashore in Sydney, Australia
 
 
JGA South greatly improves communications networks from Australia to Asia and the United States by enhancing network diversity and expanding onward connectivity.
 
Russ Matulich, RTI’s CEO, said, “Everyone deserves easy access to international networks that offer diversity, scalability and onward connectivity. JGA South is now easily accessible across Equinix’s Sydney campus and will soon be connected in Brisbane. Not only is JGA South the fastest path from Australia to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Guam, but it also interconnects seamlessly to all RTI cables through GNC – RTI’s neutral cable landing station and data center on Guam. RTI’s infrastructure investments that interconnect our cables and data centers to neutral cities across Asia, Australia and the US, give our customers complete confidence that their critical content is safely and securely delivered over our state-of-the-art 100 Gbps network.”
 
Chris Hancock, AARNet’s CEO said, “The on-time completion of JGA South is a milestone for AARNet as we expand our reach into North Asia. The recent impact of the new coronavirus on the Australian research and education community has been both unexpected and devastating. AARNet moved immediately to procure additional capacity on our existing links into North Asia to meet the increased demand for video conferencing, remote learning and personal communications. JGA South, will in the future, form an essential link to all points north in Asia and our long-term investments in international infrastructure will provide us the control to not only cope with events like this but more importantly to facilitate the significant future data growth for research and education.”
 
JGA South, a consortium cable among AARNet, Google and RTI, is the southern segment of the Japan-Guam-Australia Cable System, between Piti, Guam and Sydney, Australia, with a branch to the Sunshine Coast. JGA South was manufactured and built by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). JGA North, the northern segment between Minami-Boso, Japan and Piti, Guam, is a private cable with RTI as the sole investor. JGA North is being manufactured and built by NEC Corporation and is scheduled for completion in summer 2020. Both JGA North and JGA South will interconnect in Guam at GNC, a neutral and combined cable-landing station and data center.
 
RTI’s owned assets are summarized as follows:
  • Southeast Asia-United States Cable System (SEA-US), commercially available since 3Q 2017, with an initial design capacity of 20 Tbps;
  • JGA South, now commercially available, with an initial design capacity exceeding 36 Tbps;
  • JGA North will become commercially available in summer 2020, with an initial design capacity of 24 Tbps;
  • Hong Kong-Guam Cable System (HK-G), will become commercially available in 2H 2021, with an initial design capacity of 48 Tbps;
  • Hong Kong-Americas Cable System (HKA), where RTI is a consortium member and will own an initial design capacity of 6 Tbps;
  • Hermosa Beach (HMB), a carrier-neutral 1MW scaled facility located in Hermosa Beach, California landing four international subsea cables connecting Los Angeles to Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Hawaii and Guam; and
  • Gateway Network Connections (GNC), a purpose-built carrier-neutral 2MW data center landing JGA North and HK-G, and which will enable connections to all Guam cable landing stations.
Taken together, RTI’s ownership on these cables exceeds 100 Tbps, totaling 38,110 kilometers, and connecting 7 cities, 4 countries, 3 continents and 2 hemispheres over a single seamless network.