Trident Subsea Cable System has announces Fujitsu Australia has delivered milestone design studies for its AUD$400m (US$356m) fiber link to south-east Asia. The project will underpin western Australia’s oil and gas sector with the first purpose-built, fiber optic subsea cable linking Perth, the Pilbara, Jakarta and Singapore.

An agreement was signed in September under which Fujitsu, as head delivery contractor, is responsible for the design and management of the project.

Fujitsu is delivering the project from its existing Perth based office and will expand its workforce in western Australia in the coming months to support the rollout of the 7000km advanced fiber optic cable and data center project.

Mark de Kock, CEO of Trident, said Trident has had an “overwhelmingly positive” response from the western Australian business community and government agencies, which see the potential for this project to deliver “enormous economic value” to the state.

Mike Foster, CEO of Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, said Trident’s “high capacity, high availability” network will have “a positive impact” on WA’s economic development for decades to come.

“Fujitsu can also be proud that it is part of a technology innovation that brings healthcare, education and agriculture improvements to communities across the Pilbara,” Foster said.

The completion of these first pieces of work now enables Fujitsu to progress to a final route design and Trident to go to market with the procurement and installation phases.

This stage also includes a multi-million-dollar hydrographic study of the Perth to Jakarta route; the commencement of designs for the Karratha data center; and the environmental impact study for marine and terrestrial routes. It is in addition to the landing sites in Perth and Onslow, which will affect both the installation and ongoing maintenance of the cable.