Tasmania gets first new sub-sea fibre connection in over 20 years

Firmus and SUBCO have reached an agreement to build a new submarine fibre optic cable between Tasmania and the mainland.

The new cable, to be named Bernacchi-1 in honour of Tasmanian-raised scientist and Antarctic explorer Louis Bernacchi, will connect Tasmania into SUBCO’s SMAP cable system between Sydney and Melbourne.

This investment builds on SUBCO’s previous investment in the 5,000km SMAP cable connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Bernacchi-1 will be the first new fibre connection between Tasmania and mainland Australia in more than 20 years and will deliver more than 60 terabits per second of additional capacity to the state on day one - more than all existing Bass Strait fibre cables combined, the companies claim.

Branching into SUBCO’s new SMAP cable system and landing in Northern Tasmania, Bernacchi-1 provides dual pathways to the mainland once it branches into SMAP - North-West to Melbourne, and North-East to Sydney.

The path to Sydney is the first time Tasmania has had a direct connection to New South Wales - from where the majority of Australia’s overseas sub-sea cables land.

“We’re re-wiring Australia’s digital infrastructure to make Australia one of the world’s largest exporters of AI Tokens” said Tim Rosenfield, Firmus Technologies co-chief executive.

“Investing in the critical sub -sea connectivity infrastructure required for this task is another example of Firmus leadership as a full-stack AI Factory Platform company.”

“I’ve been trying to build a new fibre route between Tasmania and the mainland for over a decade to bring much needed diversity, resiliency and cheaper connectivity to Australia and the world,” said Bevan Slattery, founder and co-chief executive of SUBCO.

“Bernacchi-1 for me is a great example of how Australia can leverage AI to create new sovereign owned infrastructure capability for the benefit of the nation as a whole and this simply would not have happened without Firmus’ significant investment and under writing the long-term operations.”

SUBCO will build and operate the cable as part of its SMAP cable system which is on track to be ready for service this month, with the Tasmanian branch expected to be operational Q2 2027.

Last year, Equinix was selected by SUBCO for the landing of its new SMAP subsea cable system directly into its IBX data centres in Perth and Sydney as well as SMAP’s PoP in Adelaide and Melbourne.

In April,  Firmus stated that it expects to secure a further A$729 million strategic equity investment, after announcing it secured a AU$14.2 billion debt financing facility back in February.