TasICT welcomes the announcement that the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments have formed a historic partnership with the Tasmanian Government to make Marinus Link a reality.
As part of the single largest infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history, Marinus Link will boost the future of Tasmanian’s ICT industries due to the significant fibre optic infrastructure which will be built into both cables which connect Tasmania to the mainland.
TasICT CEO Steve Adermann said, “The peak industry Body has long advocated and encouraged Governments to invest more heavily in our off-island linkages, and we’re thrilled that Marinus Link is taking a big step forward, following the resolution of funding and ownership”.
Supplementing the three current Bass Strait cables with the addition of a further two fibre optic linkages, Marinus Link will provide a much-needed increase in reliability and resilience of our connections. It will also significantly boost available data capacity, providing an additional 150 times the data capacity of all three current cables combined.
Mr Adermann said “This is a watershed moment for ICT in Tasmania, which will also make an even greater case for investments in data heavy industries, such as data centres and AI computing for our state – as well as businesses and opportunities that have yet to be conceived”.
TasICT looks forward to the first Marinus Link interconnector becoming lit in 2028/2029.