The Economic Impact of the Aura Network

Australia’s future prosperity will increasingly be underpinned by the ability to move petabytes of data seamlessly across the nation and into the global supply chain

Telstra InfraCo’s Aura Network, previously known as the Intercity Fibre Network, is a generational, nation-building investment that can underpin Australia’s long-term productivity and digital competitiveness. Under the initiative, Telstra has committed $1.6 billion into key fibre initiatives including building a world class high capacity, low-loss fibre network with a vision to connect every Australian capital city, enhance connectivity to regional Australia and potential to underpin Australia’s important role within the Asia-Pacific digital landscape.

The Aura Network is a digital highway that provides long-distance, high-capacity city-to-city fibre links, which underpins the rapid growth of data generated by cloud computing and emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and edge-computing applications. Importantly, it can enable local entrepreneurs and industry to compete across the region and globally.

A new digital backbone for Australia

Built with a Dual Cable Diverse Architecture, the Aura Network features two parallel cable systems:

• Express Cables provide direct, high-capacity connections between capital cities and key data hubs, including data centres and subsea landing stations.

• Foundation Cables extend connectivity to regional communities through more than 2,000 on- and off-ramps, creating opportunities for regional industries.

The first live routes, Melbourne–Canberra–Sydney, are operating in the corridor that has over 90 percent of Australia’s operational data centres. Once complete, the Aura Network can serve as Australia’s new national fibre backbone, delivering multi-terabit capacity and resilient connectivity to secure the nation’s digital future within the Asia-Pacific.

Powering the AI and digital economy with transformational capabilities

Australia is one of the most significant data centre economies in the Asia-Pacific region to support cloud, AI and other emerging technologies. However, AI and the digital economy are not just about compute or connecting the internet, it’s about the ability to transport petabytes of data between data centres, clouds and edge locations within Australia and across the globe. The Aura Network is expected to be critical to future-proofing Australia’s digital infrastructure to handle the explosive growth of data from cloud computing, AI, IoT, and edge applications.

Australia’s cloud market is projected to triple from $18 billion in 2024 to $55 billion by 2034, while generative AI could deliver $115 billion in economic benefits by 2030, and the technology sector expected to contribute $250 billion to the Australian economy by 2030 Customers spanning hyperscalers, carriers, neo clouds, governments, data-centre operators, and resource companies can benefit from up to 35× greater capacity per path and 50% fewer network impacts compared with typical terrestrial networks. As the digital economy accelerates and becomes increasingly global, minimising latency has become a critical priority. To remain competitive in today’s digital-first marketplace, organisations must enable real-time decision-making, seamless remote operations, and scalable, data-driven applications. The Aura Network can empower Australia to meet the escalating demands of a modern digital economy.

Enabling critical national use cases

The Aura Network can transform how Australian businesses and governments operate enabling them to securely innovate, scale and export.Key applications could include:

• Mining: Enabling live video, high-resolution imaging,and predictive analytics for mining digital twins and autonomous trucks.
• Defence: Delivering resilient, sovereign fibre links to Northern Territory defence sites, and supporting projects such as Tamboran Resources’ proposed US$5 billion data centre.
• Healthcare: Supporting genomic sequencing, telestroke services, and real-time tele-robotics through national hospital networks.
• Agriculture: Enabling real-time satellite and drone analytics for precision farming and crop simulation, supporting an agritech market projected at US$2.4 billion by 2033.
• Education: Connecting supercomputing and AI resources such as the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre to campuses across Australia for immersive digital learning.

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