The Federal Government allocated AU$1.5 million in the Federal Budget to the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) over four years to implement a new regime to protect submarine cables, particularly international cables that link Australia's telecommunications network to that of the rest of the world.
"The initial indications are that -- given that most of the submarine cables in this country go out of Sydney and Perth -- they're the likely areas that would be considered," Robert Johnston, manager of licensing and national interests for the ACA, told ZDNet Australia .
"Once the protection zones are in place it's more than likely that a number of the cables would be in those areas that were picked," said Johnston, adding that the zones would be chosen to include as many cables as possible. Companies would then apply to have their cables officially included in the protection zone.
Johnston said the mechanism of establishing protection zones prohibiting activities that could damage submarine cables close to shore, such as anchoring or net fishing, would bring Australia in line with protection zones around the world.
"The legislation would be implemented (if it goes through parliamentary session) towards the end of the year and we'd be looking at implementing these arrangements as soon as practical after that," said Johnston. Fees and permit charges to cable owners would fund ongoing maintenance of the protection zones.
