Telstra Digital Infrastructure has launched the Perth-Sydney route of its Aura Network.
The integrated digital infrastructure business describes the Aura Network, previously known as the Intercity Fibre Network, as the backbone of its digital future. The fibre network is designed to enhance connectivity between Australian cities and regions, supporting a wide range of digital services. In addition, the Aura Network provides organisations with greater capacity and route diversity to move data across the country and connect with international markets.
The route is the longest in the network, and strengthens Australia’s east-west digital corridor, connecting the major cloud, datacentre and business hubs of Australia’s eastern states to Perth, connecting into the western global subsea cable networks.
Emphasising the need to launch the route, the network provider noted that research it commissioned from Oxford Economics, Australia’s western gateway: WA’s digital opportunity, found that Western Australia’s (WA’s) digital economy could grow from $16.8bn in FY25 to approximately $89.1bn by FY40 under an accelerated digital adoption scenario.
The report also highlighted high-capacity connectivity as a key enabler of growth across industries including mining, defence, and professional and financial services, while reinforcing WA’s role as a connection point between Australia and international markets.
Built with two separate fibre pathways, one for express traffic and another with “on” and “off” ramps to support connectivity to regional Australia, the network gives customers the ability to choose how they access capacity. Organisations can purchase access to a dedicated part of the network, customise and scale capacity as needed, or use a fully managed service.
“Western Australia is home to some of the world’s most geographically distributed and technology-intensive industries, from remote operations centres to increasingly automated mining and industrial operations,” said Telstra Digital Infrastructure CEO Steven Worrall. “As these industries become increasingly data-driven, the connectivity linking them to customers, partners, cloud and compute is becoming just as important as the technology deployed on the ground.
“The Perth-Sydney route adds another high-capacity pathway between Australia’s west and east, helping businesses move data more reliably across the country and strengthening the connections between WA’s growing digital economy and global markets. Western Australia is increasingly emerging as a strategic digital and defence hub in the Indo-Pacific, which makes this investment in low-latency, resilient new infrastructure even more strategic.”
In addition, the Perth-Sydney route also forms part of Telstra’s broader $1.8bn investment in Australia’s digital infrastructure. Together with Aura’s other routes, the telco claims it can now strengthen connectivity between Australia’s major cities, datacentres, cloud regions and international gateways.
Looking at the Aura national network in the round, the company said the activation of the Perth-Sydney route marks another milestone in the network, with 9,000km built of a planned 14,000km and active routes across Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. It is designed to provide up to 35 times more fibre capacity per path and greater resilience than conventional fibre routes.
Telstra noted that network is already supporting demand from cloud, AI and digital infrastructure providers, with organisations including Microsoft and Google securing capacity on the Aura Network to help meet growing connectivity requirements.
“Cloud, AI and datacentres are changing where and how data is generated, processed and consumed,” said Worrall. “Resilient connections between Australia’s major digital hubs will be increasingly important as that demand grows.
“The Perth-Sydney route adds another high-capacity pathway across the country, helping businesses connect Australia’s west and east and the global digital networks they increasingly depend on.”
