Press conference - Darwin, Northern Territory

NATASHA FYLES, CHIEF MINISTER OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY: Connectivity in Northern Australia will be faster and more reliable with a subsea cable linking Darwin to the world. This is one of only four cables out of Australia to connect to digital connectivity around the world. So, this is exciting. This is the Northern Territory using its strategic location in Northern Australia, close to Asia, to be able to achieve this. So, we are really excited to have the Federal Minister for Communications here in the top end, as well as Vocus. And this is something that the Northern Territory has been focused on - ensuring digital connectivity for Territorians to ensure that we have access, which is particularly important for business and jobs, but also Territorians, and the opportunities that come from these through data centres. So, I’ll hand to the Federal Minister and then the others will speak, and we’re happy to take any questions. Thank you.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Thank you, Chief Minister, and I’m delighted to be here today for this very exciting announcement for Darwin and the Territory. And it’s a tremendous example of collaboration between the Northern Territory Government and the industry as well, and I thank Vocus for their commitment to the Northern Territory.

This is only the first time that Darwin will be directly connected to an international subsea cable system. Just in terms of giving you a perspective of how important this is, 98 per cent of data and voice traffic around the world is actually carried by undersea cables. And the value of trade in terms of financial transactions and exchange of information actually exceeds that of trade that is carried by the sea itself. So, you can appreciate how important this connectivity is, not only in terms of enabling those connections to be made and the economic benefits that come with them, but also the flow‑on benefits for the Northern Territory, the economy and society as a whole.

This also has benefits in terms of its alignment with our strategic interests in the portfolio and more broadly as a Federal Government in terms of the increased reliability, the redundancy that is available through this new subsea cable, but also in terms of the increased speed that will be enabled via this direct connection.  Again I congratulate you, Chief Minister, and your Government on this collaboration with Vocus, which will not only benefit Darwin in the immediate term, but also, in the longer term, those benefits will be widely held throughout the territory itself.

NGAREE AH KIT, NT MINISTER FOR CORPORATE AND DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT: The Northern Territory Government is proud to invest $7.9 million in the Darwin–Jakarta–Singapore cable. We know that this is such an important project that will deliver 40-terabit-per-second internet capability between Darwin and Asia. Darwin is Australia’s gateway to Asia, so we’re ideally positioned to host more data centres and this project will give us a real great boost in that area. The project also brings with it many jobs for many Territorians. We know that digital connectivity is the way of the future and we can’t wait to see the impact this will have on the Northern Territory.

ELLIE SWEENEY, CEO OF VOCUS: Thank you for those remarks. At Vocus we talk a lot about our purpose. Our purpose is about building critical connections and enabling better possibilities. I can’t think of a better example anywhere in Australia than for us today, than to be able to go live on the Darwin–Jakarta–Singapore cable system. Now, look, this has been the culmination of a decade’s journey for us. We started in 2017 when we built the north-west cable system from Darwin to Port Hedland. In 2018 we built the Australia–Singapore cable system, so from Singapore to Perth. In 2021 we expanded the Adelaide–Darwin and to Brisbane intercapital fibre that’s 25 times the capacity that was previously there. And today we are delighted to say we have launched the Darwin–Jakarta–Singapore cable system. It is going to provide people in Darwin with the fastest route to Singapore; low latency, high capacity and a real level of security into Darwin, which is just fantastic. I want to thank our team, our partners. I want to thank the government here who have worked with us on this. This is just an incredible opportunity, we think, and if I go back to the idea of building critical connections, digital infrastructure is critical for any economy and better possibilities. I can’t wait to see what this cable does for the Northern Territory. So, on that note, a huge thank you to everyone who’s been a partner.

FYLES: Did you have questions on this topic?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, can I ask, so are we talking about faster - just faster internet speed, or is it faster phone calls? Can you actually explain what it means for an everyday person?

SWEENEY: Well, it kind of depends, but if you think about it, if you’re in Darwin at the moment, your connectivity is going to go on a terrestrial route predominantly. And at the moment we’ve got so much data coming out of Asia that we now have a route that will go from Singapore to Jakarta to Christmas Island to Port Hedland and across to Darwin. So, it will be speed that it will provide people and low latency. So if you’re on Netflix or wanting to stream something or wanting to have data closer to the edge, which is where when we talk about data centres being built in Darwin, it means you’ve got secure data, sovereign data, in Darwin. People in Darwin will be able to access it a lot faster as well. So, it’s a really fantastic opportunity to be able to have another access point into Australia.

And I think the Chief Minister mentioned, you know, if you think about cable systems coming into Australia, which you probably don’t, they’re coming into Sydney, Maroochydore, they’re coming into Perth; and now we’ve got an international capable coming into Darwin as well.

JOURNALIST: So, it provides faster internet for the whole Territory?  

SWEENEY: Yeah, so if you’re coming into Darwin and then you connect - so that speed coming out of Singapore or coming out of Asia, so another route into Australia, coming into Darwin, will be faster for people here, so much greater low latency, high capacity coming in.

JOURNALIST: How much faster? Like, you know, for someone – you mentioned Netflix before or whatever it is, how much faster is it?

SWEENEY: Well, it’s more about the actual [indistinct] being buffeted or anything like that. You’re going to have a more secure, non-buffeted, faster system coming in.

JOURNALIST: Chief Minister, can I ask you, people do have problems with internet speeds or phone calls dropping out; is this the end of that?

FYLES: No, this is not the end to all that but this is a really key piece to the puzzle. So, as you’ve just heard, at the moment data coming into Australia comes through Perth, Sydney and Maroochydore. This now adds the Northern Territory and Darwin to that. So it makes us an ideal location to see those data centres in the future and for businesses, they’ll know that they’ll have more secure, quicker access if they’re based in the Northern Territory. So, it certainly helps to that puzzle but it will not solve it.

JOURNALIST: Talking about creating or making the top end a digital data hub, are there any projects in the works that will use this cable to develop our capacity as a data centre?

FYLES: So we know that the Northern Territory is well-placed to be a data hub for Australia, and indeed the world. We have got close proximity to South‑East Asia and the millions, billions of people that live there. We have got the land to build data centres on. And we also know that they need electricity, so renewables and water, which we’ve got through the AROWS project. So we’re absolutely, for us as a government, working with the Commonwealth Government around the economic opportunities that this cable and that data centres bring us into the future.

JOURNALIST: What is a data centre going to look like here in Darwin?

FYLES: So data centres are essentially like the space we’re in, and we’re going to take you into one in just a moment, but it’s a little loud to do the speaking part of the press conference in. But they are big air-conditioned boxes, but they require a lot of electricity to be run. They are required to be cool and, therefore, more electricity, which we have through renewables, and water, which I have just articulated we also have, and the space to build them. So, the Northern Territory is really well-placed and Australia is well-placed because we are a secure nation, and that is the other factor when people are looking to make these investments that they look towards.

JOURNALIST: Is there any sort of timeline on when we might see new data centres popping up in the territory thanks to this cable?

FYLES: So there’s a number of projects that are being contemplated or underway and we’d be happy to update you on those as they come to milestones.

JOURNALIST: The press release talks about bridging the digital divide. What is the digital divide in the Northern Territory that’s being bridged through this cable?

FYLES: So I think it’s everything that we’ve just been speaking to. So, we will now have an access point coming straight through Darwin, so things will be quicker and ensure that you’re getting the same access as you were previously in Sydney or Perth, for example.

JOURNALIST: Can you outline I guess how far behind Darwin is before this, in comparison to those other cities and Darwin?

FYLES: I don’t think it’s a matter of how far behind we are, but this is a really exciting opportunity for the Northern Territory because this puts us in that one of four. So, we have had certainly connectivity prior to this, but this will allow - and I’m happy to pass to Ellie from Vocus - but this will allow speed will be higher, and because it is closer to those subsea cables, you’re not routing it through other locations unnecessarily.

JOURNALIST: Can ask you that in terms of a natural disaster or whatever it might be we see here in the top end, does this sort of mean that there’s no way that we would lose connectivity, you know, in terms of internet during that natural disaster?

ROWLAND: What it does is by providing that extra redundancy, so a backup system that’s available, that does mitigate some of those risks. Unfortunately, natural disasters by their very nature are obviously high impact and we can’t predict how they will take out various systems. But we do know that by having redundancy, it is a first principle of telecommunications engineering that you have some sort of backup there. This is providing that. But also, as the Vocus CEO outlined, by having that direct connection into this subsea cable system going north, it means that there is less latency and higher quality already and less opportunities for those kinds of disasters to have a greater impact on those systems.

JOURNALIST: And once the faster data gets here through to Darwin, the infrastructure that we have at the moment to connect to the rest of the Territory, is that there to get that same speed to a place like Alice Springs?

ROWLAND: There is in parts, and what this will mean is those greater quality of what we call backhaul, which provides that transmission between where the cable lands and other points of presence. So, by having that backbone enhanced, that certainly enables greater quality of services to be provided by wholesalers but also by retail service providers. And I think the Chief Minister has well articulated that it is not only about speed, but it is also about quality, and that’s what’s so important. That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about latency. We talk about that customer experience. But again, the Chief Minister did well to highlight how when international companies are making decisions about where they are going to invest, one of the first things they look at on a grid is the level and quality of connectivity. And by having that, it not only means that it is probably going to end up being more affordable for those data centres or other investments to take place, they will have that assurance that it is going to be the highest quality connectivity at the same time.

JOURNALIST: Are you in talks with big companies about basing their [indistinct] here in Darwin?

ROWLAND: We’re always as a Federal Government looking for opportunities, particularly in regional Australia, outside traditional metropolitan areas, and certainly the location that Vocus has chosen here does give life to some of those investment decisions. But as a government, we are also very focused on our strategic interests and we know that at the Quad, only recently, discussions have been had about the need to have reliable and resilient subsea cable systems for the very reasons that I mentioned. So, certainly what is being done here in the Territory is very much aligned with how the Federal Government views not only this from a telecommunications portfolio sense, but also in terms of our relationships with South‑East Asia and the Pacific more generally.