en.Wedoany.com Reported - Firmus and SUBCO have announced the joint construction of the Bernacchi-1 submarine fiber optic cable, which will connect Tasmania to mainland Australia via the Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth (SMAP) system, adding over 60 Tbps of capacity and becoming the state's first new submarine fiber optic connection in more than 20 years.

This new spur will more than double Tasmania's existing connection capacity while providing additional network diversity and resilience. According to Firmus and SUBCO, the cable will provide over 60 Tbps of additional capacity to Tasmania on its first day of operation, exceeding the total capacity of all existing fiber optic cables across the Bass Strait.

After obtaining final marine and landing permits, Bernacchi-1 will land in northern Tasmania and provide two paths to mainland Australia: a northwest route to Melbourne and a northeast route to Sydney. The Sydney route will provide Tasmania with its first direct submarine fiber optic connection to New South Wales, where many of Australia's international submarine cable systems land.

The project is underwritten by Firmus as part of its broader Project Southgate initiative, which aims to expand AI infrastructure across Australia. SUBCO will build and operate Bernacchi-1 as an extension of the SMAP network.

Bevan Slattery, founder and co-CEO of SUBCO, stated that for over a decade, he has been working to build a new fiber route connecting Tasmania to the mainland, bringing much-needed diversity, resilience, and cheaper connectivity to Australia and the world. He believes Bernacchi-1 is an excellent example of how Australia can leverage AI to create new nationally owned infrastructure capabilities, which would not have been possible without Firmus's significant investment and underwriting of long-term operations.

Tim Rosenfield, founder and co-CEO of Firmus Technologies, added that the company is rewiring Australia's digital infrastructure to make the country one of the world's largest exporters of AI tokens. He believes that investing in the critical submarine connectivity infrastructure required for this mission is another example of Firmus's leadership as a full-stack AI factory platform company.

The cable is named after Louis Bernacchi, a physicist and Antarctic explorer who grew up in Tasmania and was the first Tasmanian and Australian to conduct the earliest sustained scientific observations in Antarctica during an overwintering period.

Bernacchi-1 is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2027, following the completion of the SMAP system, which remains on schedule to be ready by June 2026. SMAP will feature 16 fiber pairs with a planned design capacity of 400 Tbps. SUBCO stated that the system is expected to become one of the world's highest-capacity submarine cable networks and described it as Australia's first "super cable."

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