Vocus buys capacity on Asian cable

Takes direct data route on SeaMeWe-3

Deep pocketed, dark fibre, data centre operator Vocus Communications is investing in international cable capacity and establishing a Point of Presence (PoP) in Singapore.

Vocus has secured capacity on the SeaMeWe-3 Perth to Singapore cable system, which will provide customers with the only direct path between Australia and South East Asia.

Vocus CEO James Spenceley said there was increasing demand for Ethernet and IP connectivity to countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong. “Our customers will see reduced latency and improved performance to all major destinations in South East Asia.”

The new PoP in Singapore is located in the Equinix data centre and connects directly back to the Vocus’ Perth iX data centre via capacity on the SeaMeWe-3 cable system.

In March Vocus acquired Perth data centre operator Perth iX, for AUD$6.275m in cash with an additional performance earn out of up to $725,000 .

By building a presence in Singapore, Vocus could expect to cut at least some of the cost of shipping bits across the Pacific. While around 80 percent of Australian Internet content consumption comes from the US, major content distribution networks like Akamai have nodes in Singapore. ®