• Vocus has traced the Australia-Singapore Cable break to Indonesian waters between Anyer and Singapore
  • Internet traffic has been rerouted, while affected wavelength and Ethernet services remain unavailable

The fact

Vocus has located a break on its Australia-Singapore Cable between Anyer in Indonesia and Singapore after the system began experiencing problems on 4 September. Testing from the Perth cable landing station gave the operator a more precise location for the fault.

By 6 September, Vocus said it had completed coherent optical time domain reflectometry testing and was reviewing the results with its marine repair partner. Preparations include confirming spare materials and securing the permits and regulatory approvals needed for a marine repair.

The effect differs by service. Vocus said affected wavelength and Ethernet services remained unavailable, while internet traffic had been rerouted through alternative paths. The company had not given a restoration date in the cited updates. TeleGeography lists the Australia-Singapore Cable as a 4,600km Vocus-owned system connecting Perth, Christmas Island, Anyer and Singapore.

The assessment

The outage shows that having another route does not necessarily mean having the same service. Vocus was able to reroute internet traffic, but affected wavelength and Ethernet services remained unavailable.

For customers using applications in Singapore, an alternative internet path may also be longer than the normal route. The application can remain reachable while becoming slower or less predictable. Customers buying dedicated transmission services face a different problem because those services need their own protection or replacement arrangement.

For BTW readers, redundancy therefore needs to be checked service by service. Customers should know which connections automatically fail over, how much capacity and latency the backup provides, and whether that is enough to keep important workloads running until the cable is repaired.

What to watch

Watch for Vocus to confirm permits, spare materials and a marine repair schedule, followed by the repair itself. Customers should also watch when wavelength and Ethernet services return and whether rerouted internet traffic returns to its normal latency and capacity once the Australia-Singapore Cable is restored.