Telstra Lights Its Longest Aura Route From Perth to Sydney

Telstra switched on the Perth-Sydney route of its Aura Network on October 7, the longest single path in a national fibre build the carrier says will cost AU$1.8 billion (US$1.25 billion).

The route runs from Perth through Kalgoorlie, Woomera, Port Augusta, Broken Hill, Dubbo and Orange before it reaches Sydney, tying Western Australia’s mining and industrial belt into the eastern states and the subsea cables that land on the east coast. Telstra InfraCo, the arm that sells the capacity, has built more than 9,000 kilometres of a planned 14,000, with six routes already open. Planning for the Perth-Sydney leg started in March 2022.

“AI may capture the headlines, but AI is not just a software story. It’s an infrastructure story,” said Steven Worrall, chief executive of Telstra Digital Infrastructure.

Independent modelling gives the build an economic frame. Oxford Economics estimates Western Australia’s digital economy could grow from $16.8 billion today to about $89.1 billion by 2040 under an accelerated adoption scenario. Telstra’s design carries up to 35 times more fibre capacity per path than conventional routes, which the operator ties to regional industry demand as much as to city traffic.

The network was previously called the Intercity Fibre Network. Telstra is building it as a wholesale asset that data centre operators, cloud providers and other carriers can lease, a role that puts it beside the subsea systems carrying Australia’s international traffic.