The national incumbent carrier has announced that it will release tender documents for the construction of the link Friday afternoon.
According to Telstra, the cable will accommodate growing demand for telecommunications in Tasmania and provide a back-up for the existing cable.
"At some point in the future if we didn't put the cable in we would have to augment our radio systems," said Lawrence Paratz, managing director of Telstra Country Wide, southern region.
Once the second undersea link is completed, Telstra won't have to upgrade the capacity of its Tasmanian service for at least a decade, according to Parataz.
In building the 240-kilometre link, Telstra anticipates increased demand for capacity in Tasmania. The increase will be driven by high bandwidth data applications, broadband Internet service, and growth in Tasmania's call centre industry.
Telstra insists that it isn't experiencing any problems with its existing optic fibre cable, it appears however that the company is trying to increase redundancy in its existing capacity.
"If the first optic fibre link is damaged and can no longer carry traffic, all communications traffic will be automatically switched to the planned Bass Strait fibre link, when operational, with minimal - if any - disruption to service," said Paratz.
The company can't provide a firm indication of the cost of the project but said that the AU$30 million spent to construct the optic fibre link in 1995 should guide estimates.
