Telstra's InfraCo launches dark fibre offering

Telstra’s new infrastructure unit InfraCo has launched a dark fibre offering across the major capitals through 250 routes.

The telco said dark fibre is InfraCo’s first product since being established in 2018 to manage most of its infrastructure assets.

InfraCo Fibre executive Kathryn Jones said the offering would unlock new value and
opportunities from Telstra’s extensive and trusted fixed network for customers.

“Spanning across our nation is 250,000km of untapped potential that we can now begin to offer our customers,” Jones said.

“With our massive fibre footprint underpinning our new offering, it opens up a wealth of capabilities and control.”

Dark fibre is unused fibre optic cable that can be licensed to customers that require very high bandwidth. Customers can self-manage bandwidth and add network protocols and features to create specialised offerings.

The offering is specifically targeted to network operators and service providers, such as global carriers, data centre operators, internet service providers and over the top providers.

Jones compared the offering to a multi-lane highway with some lanes now able to be licensed specifically for an organisation’s dedicated use.

“With more than 250 pre-defined paths available right now in six state capitals, connected to 68 metro data centres, 78 NBN Points of Interconnect and two cable landing stations, opening up our fixed network to customers in this way is a profound step in unlocking untapped value in our network assets,” Jones said.

“Available in most capital cities initially, we will soon expand the availability and use cases of Dark Fibre across the nation, beyond just metro locations.”

Commenting on InfraCo’s founding, Jones said the past year reinforced the increasing value of infrastructure assets globally, as well as its importance to the digital economy.

“Dark Fibre is the first of a series of offerings we will bring to the market that will give our customers the capacity, flexibility, security and speed needed to unlock new business opportunities,” she said.