Subsea cable firm Subco has started working on a new cable landing station in Adelaide, Australia, for the upcoming SMAP system.

“Construction is underway at Subco’s Adelaide cable landing station!” the company said on LinkedIn. “The 20m x 20m site has been cut and bored pier installation is now underway, forming the foundations of the build.”

The new CLS site is located in the West Beach area of Adelaide.

The 5,000km (3,106 miles) SMAP cable was first announced by SubCo in 2023 and is set to be operational in Q1 2026, connecting Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.

The company also added that the CLS cage at Equinix’s SY5 facility in Sydney is now operational after a five-day installation process.

Work on a CLS in Torquay, Victoria, began in March. The construction period will last approximately eight months. The POP in Perth has been installed.

The cable was initially set to connect Tasmania, but the company announced it would drop the Hobart/Tasmania extension in August last year.

Originally designed as a 12-fiber pair system, SMAP was upgraded to a planned 16-fiber pair system in May last year.

SubCo, part of Bevan Slattery’s Soda Group, also owns the Oman Australia Cable and owns capacity on the Indigo subsea cables.