Connecting Australia & the US: SUBCO’s Express Hypercable

SUBCO announces a new direct submarine cable system linking Australia and US mainland. 

Named APX East, the new route is designed to deliver high-capacity, low-latency connectivity for hyperscalers, neoclouds and carriers, with Ready for Service (RFS) planned for Q4 2028. A branch to Hawaii is scheduled to follow in Q4 2029.

APX East is a 16 fibre pair system that removes the need for intermediate landings or regeneration between Australia and California. 

SUBCO has confirmed it is the world’s longest continuous optical subsea cable path and the only transpacific system of its kind to support single-end power in a fault condition.

Bevan Slattery, Founder & Co-CEO of SUBCO, says: “By utilising the latest developments in submarine cable technologies, we have designed the longest, continuous optical subsea cable path in the world and one that can be powered from a single end in fault condition. 

“Unlike all existing transpacific systems between Australia and the United States, fibre pair owners on APX-East simply need to install SLTE on either end and they’re away. No regeneration, no intermediate PoP’s, just a single all deepwater route.”

Timing to match AI capacity demands

SUBCO outlines the project’s role in supporting future AI capacity in Australia. 

Large-scale infrastructure plans by hyperscalers and neocloud platforms are already in motion, with bandwidth requirements expected to surge by the time the cable is operational.

Bevan says: “Hyperscalers and neoclouds are looking to deploy 3GW of AI factories in Australia between now and 2028. 

“This is going to need between 75Tb–150Tb of international capacity to deliver those tokens to the world. 

“Any future system with a 2029 or 2030 RFS simply won’t work. APX-East is an all deepwater system between Sydney and California that reduces permitting risk, allowing an accelerated installation and completion.”

The focus on timing and simplicity underlines SUBCO’s positioning of APX East as an enabler for Australia’s AI ecosystem. 

With other infrastructure elements such as power, land and chips receiving attention, Bevan highlights the critical importance of long-haul connectivity to global markets.

“With all the talk of AI factories, people are forgetting that the longest lead item for Australia isn’t going to be power, land, data centers or chips, it’s going to be international connectivity at AI scale. APX East will be a critical enabler for Australia’s aspirations to become a leader in the AI world,” he says.

Cable system avoids congestion and adds resiliency

Beyond its technical design, APX East introduces a route that avoids congestion and overreliance on existing landing zones. 

It is the first express transpacific cable from Australia that lands outside Sydney’s Southern Cable Protection Zone, providing route diversity for global operators.

SUBCO confirms that APX East is Australia’s first sovereign-owned international hypercable. This allows local operators to reduce dependency on US hyperscalers for international transit capacity.

Future branches to Hawaii and Fiji are planned but not required for the core system. These optional extensions are expected in 2029 and offer customers additional resiliency and capacity regeneration paths as needed.

SUBCO states that the system’s deepwater design reduces regulatory risks and permits a streamlined installation process. With no intermediate points of presence or regeneration nodes, the system is built for simplicity, performance and security.

As AI infrastructure demand builds in Australia, APX East offers a new high-capacity path built to meet emerging needs in cloud computing, machine learning and international data exchange. 

By removing intermediate landings and delivering single-span connectivity between Sydney and California, SUBCO positions the system as a backbone route for future data centre growth.