SUBCO and Firmus are teaming up to build some subsea fiber that’s, well, under down under. The new cable will connect the island of Tasmania to the rest of Australia. It will be the island’s first new fiber connection in a couple of decades.
Folks have been getting creative with their subsea cable names over the years, and indeed this one will be named Bernacchi-1, after the Antarctic explorer Louis Bernacchi. Born in Belgium but raised in Tasmania, he joined the Southern Cross expedition in 1898-1900 and then the Discovery expedition in 1901-1904. He was the first Australian to overwinter on the continent and worked on geomagnetic data and observations. Maybe someday they’ll build a branch southward from Tasmania, it’s only 1600 miles haha.
Bernacchi-1 will hook into SUBCO’s new SMAP cable system, branching northwest to Melbourne and northeast to Sydney. Firums builds energy-efficient AI factories and related infrastructure, while SUBCO has been the power behind many cables in the region, including INDIGO West, INDIGO Central, the Oman Australia Cable (OAC), and now SMAP, with APX East still in development. https://newswire.telecomramblings.com/2026/06/firmus-and-subco-to-build-bernacchi-1-tasmanias-first-new-sub-sea-fibre-connection-in-over-20-years/
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Categories: Undersea cables
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Anonymous on Lumen Takes On the Northern Tier: “Cogent also has the 1980s Sprint fiber across that route. Lumen may just be leasing a pair of fibers from…” May 29, 10:54
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