It is the second project under its Australian Digital Infrastructure Platform (ADIP) and is aimed at rising demand from hyperscaler, neocloud and enterprise customers. The route is expected to be ready for service in 2030.
It will run for approximately 4,000 kilometres and is designed for up to 3,456 fibre strands. Vocus has begun route planning, technical design and customer engagement as part of the early works phase.
Vocus CEO Andrés Irlando said northern Australia was becoming “a critical region for AI, cloud, and digital services”, with Queensland and the Northern Territory emerging as data centre precincts and gateways to Asia and the US.
The new corridor builds on Vocus’s existing northern footprint. Chief technology officer Nikos Katinakis pointed to the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable system and the North-West Cable System. He also noted that subsea initiatives from Google and Meta with interests in northern Australia are under way. He said the Brisbane-Darwin corridor would strengthen links to the east coast and add capacity, diversity and resilience. It also extends the ducted inter-capital design Vocus first introduced on its Sydney-Melbourne route.
The announcement follows the launch of ADIP in June, when Vocus committed to Australia’s first ducted long-haul fibre route between Sydney and Melbourne. That route is due for service in 2029, carries approximately A$500 million in capital investment and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs. In August, Vocus appointed UGL as development partner for early works on the route.
Ducted construction is central to the ADIP model. New fibre can be blown through protective ducts to add capacity without breaking ground again or disturbing live customer networks.
Demand case
Vocus has framed ADIP, which spans subsea and terrestrial networks, around AI-driven capacity shortfalls. Vocus-commissioned research indicates Australian data centre capacity will triple by 2030, with AI workloads driving most future long-haul fibre demand. The company says existing fibre corridors face rising utilisation and exhaustion. At the ADIP launch, Vocus put AI’s share at 85 to 95% of long-haul demand and 70 to 80% of metro demand.
Darwin’s role as a digital gateway has grown since Vocus completed the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable in 2023, a project Capacity covered from the start of works. The DJSC connects to Vocus’s Terabit Territory backbone, which runs from Darwin to Adelaide and Brisbane. NEXTDC opened its D1 Darwin data centre in August 2024, developed with the Northern Territory Government and Vocus.
The project is the latest in a run of network investments under Irlando, a former Zayo president, who in May hired fellow Zayo alumnus Katinakis as CTO. Earlier this year Vocus quadrupled capacity on its Adelaide-Perth route. Google’s Tabua cable, which lands at Maroochydore, also connects into Vocus’s national network.
Vocus is owned by Macquarie Asset Management and Aware Super.
Related stories
- Vocus to build Australia’s first ducted long-haul fibre route between Sydney and Melbourne
- Vocus quadruples Adelaide-Perth capacity as AI and cloud drive east-west bandwidth demand
- Vocus appoints fibre veteran as CTO to drive AI fibre strategy
- Vocus names former Zayo president Andrés Irlando as CEO
- Google’s Tabua cable lands in Australia
- Google taps Vocus to expand Honomoana cable plans
- Vocus and ASN start work on Australia-Singapore cable link
- Vocus enhances Australia’s Northern Territory
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