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Aug 06, 2023

DXN delivers modular cable landing station to Palau for Echo cable landing

Second cable landing at Micronesian island DXN has installed a modular cable landing station (CLS) at Ngaradmau on the island of Palau for the Meta/Google-led Echo subsea cable. “DXN Limited

Second cable landing at Micronesian island

DXN has installed a modular cable landing station (CLS) at Ngaradmau on the island of Palau for the Meta/Google-led Echo subsea cable.

“DXN Limited successfully manufactured and delivered a turnkey Cable Landing Station (CLS) for the Echo Cable System's new branch, Palau Cable 2 (PC2),” the company said on LinkedIn this week. “Chosen for our expertise, DXN has played a key role in connecting Palau to global digital networks, meeting the growing demand for bandwidth and ensuring redundancy for Palau's initial cable.”

DXN said it was delivering a CLS module to the state-owned Belau Submarine Cable Company (BSCC) for a new cable spur to Palau last year. According to the Japanese Embassy in Palau, ground was originally broken on the site in December 2021, with an inauguration ceremony held in June 2023.

The Palau Submarine Cable Branch System Project (PC2) is a dedicated branch of the upcoming Echo cable network. NEC is developing the cable.

Announced in 2021, the Meta-led Echo cable is being built in partnership with Google and XL Axiata. The 17,000km cable links the US to Indonesia and Singapore via Guam and Palau. It is set to go live next year, with the Palau spur expected to be operational in Q1 2025.

The $30 million spur to Palau is being funded with efforts from Australia, Japan, and the US under the Trilateral Partnership for Infrastructure Investment in the Indo-Pacific, as well as Palau.

Palau’s first subsea cable, the 15,000 km SEA-US – the 200km Palau branch is known as Palau Cable 1 (PC1) - was laid in 2017 and connects the US to the Philippines and Indonesia. It is owned by a consortium of GTA TeleGuam, Globe Telecom, Hawaiian Telcom, RTI, and Telin. The Palau spur was partly paid for via loans from the Asian Development Bank. That cable also lands in Ngeremlengui.

ASX-listed DXN currently operates three data centers across Australia; the 4,351 sqm (46,800 sq ft), 5.5MW DXN-SYD01 in Sydney, a second facility in Hobart, Tasmania, and a 350 sqm (3,700 sq ft) bunker with two data halls in Darwin.

The company also manufactures modular prefab data centers, and has delivered dozens of modules to customers including AngloAmerican, gold-miner Newcrest to a site in New South Wales, as well as Boeing and Covalent Lithium, and to Sub.co for a landing station on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for the Oman – Australia Cable.

In June 2023, DXN signed a deal for two data center modules with mining company Pilbara Minerals. The AU$1.8 million deal will see the modules deployed to Pilbara’s Pilgangoora operations in Western Australia in February 2024. DXN said these are its 41st and 42nd modules to be delivered.

In May PAG-owned Flow ordered a DXN module. The deal was valued at AU$362,000 but didn’t include details on a customer or delivery location. This was the first order under a recent partnership the two companies signed.

In August 2022, data center firm DXN announced that it was going to be selling all "business assets and subsidiaries" to Flow2Edge, the new data center investment platform from investment manager PAG Real Estate. By September, the deal was amended for Flow to only acquire DXN’s modular manufacturing unit, before falling through entirely by November 2022 and instead forming a distribution partnership for the modules across APAC.