SMAP subsea cable project hits major milestones, set to deliver Australia’s first hyperscale national fibre backbone
The SMAP subsea cable project—part of HyperOne’s push to build Australia’s first hyperscale national fibre backbone—is advancing rapidly, with multiple engineering and construction milestones reached across the country. The 5,200 km system is designed to support the next generation of cloud, AI, and digital services by providing massive capacity, energy efficiency, and enhanced resiliency.
SMAP will link Sydney, Melbourne (Torquay), Adelaide, and Perth with 16 fibre pairs per segment, built using state-of-the-art Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) technology. The system will deliver over 400 Tbps per section, with energy efficiency rated at 15 Tbps per kilowatt—roughly 25 times the efficiency of Australia’s legacy inter-capital terrestrial networks. By leveraging SDM, SMAP enables more fibres to share optical amplification resources, reducing per-bit energy and maximizing spectral efficiency.
SMAP also incorporates a fully armoured cable design—making it the first long-haul Australian subsea cable engineered for maximum uptime and resilience. Shallow water segments near rugged seafloors are further protected with ductile iron Articulated Pipe for superior mechanical shielding. The network architecture integrates 60 in-line optical repeaters and branching units, enabling precise wavelength management and flexible network scaling. It is also designed for zero-carbon operations, with all landing stations powered by on-site renewables and 100% green energy procurement.
Construction highlights this month include the first successful shore-end landing in Perth, with the cable threaded through a specially prepared conduit and protected for shallow water hazards. At Torquay and Adelaide, new Cable Landing Stations (CLS) are under construction, with structural work now completed in Melbourne and foundational slabs poured in Adelaide. The Sydney CLS at Equinix SY5 is now fully installed and integrated. The main cable ship, Île d’Yeu, loaded with 5,200 km of cable and 7,000 tonnes of equipment, is en route to Australia, with mainline installation beginning this summer.
The SMAP project forms the initial phase of HyperOne’s larger 20,000 km national fibre program. The full network will deliver up to 10x the capacity of existing systems, provide more than 2,000 regional and remote off-ramps, and create a sovereign digital backbone for every state and territory. Once operational, HyperOne and SMAP will position Australia with a modern, high-capacity infrastructure built for the future of cloud computing, AI workloads, and national security needs.
- SMAP subsea cable: 5,200 km system with 16 fibre pairs using Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM)
- Capacity: Over 400 Tbps per section, with industry-leading energy efficiency of 15 Tbps per kilowatt
- First fully armoured long-haul cable in Australia with shallow water pipe armour for rugged areas
- Architecture includes 60 in-line optical repeaters, branching units, and wavelength-flexible design
- Zero-carbon goal: 100% renewable power at all landing stations and operational offsets
- First shore-end landed in Perth; CLS construction advancing in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney
- Part of HyperOne’s 20,000 km sovereign fibre backbone with 10x existing capacity, 2,000+ off-ramps
- Project on track for readiness for service (RFS) by March 2026
“This is a significant step toward delivering the nation’s first hypercable linking Australia’s eastern and western seaboards while enabling true national-scale digital infrastructure,” said Bevan Slattery, founder of HyperOne and SUBCO.
