West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands

West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Submarine Cable Landing Point

West Island is a landing point for submarine cables located in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory situated in the Indian Ocean. As the sole submarine cable landing point in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, West Island connects this remote territory to a long-distance cable system spanning the Indian Ocean and beyond. One submarine cable currently lands here, linking the Cocos (Keeling) Islands into a corridor that stretches across intercontinental distances, connecting Australia, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and Oman.

The single cable landing at West Island, the Oman Australia Cable, enables connectivity along an east-west axis across the Indian Ocean, positioning the Cocos (Keeling) Islands as an intermediate point on a route that joins the Arabian Peninsula to the Australian continent. This intercontinental corridor reflects the geographic significance of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands as a stepping stone across one of the world's major oceanic expanses.

Cables Landing at West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Oman Australia Cable (OAC) is an 11,000 km submarine cable system that reached ready-for-service (RFS) status in 2022 on a draft basis. The cable connects the Cocos (Keeling) Islands with Australia, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and Oman, forming a long-haul route across the Indian Ocean. West Island serves as one of the intermediate landing points on this system, linking the territory into a network that spans from the Arabian Sea to the southwestern Pacific approaches of Australia.

Regional Context

West Island is the only submarine cable landing point in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and the territory itself is served by a single cable system. With an average cable length of 11,000 km and a first cable RFS date of 2022, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands represents a recently connected, single-node presence in the Indian Ocean submarine cable landscape.

Network Role

West Island functions as a single-cable terminus within the broader Oman Australia Cable system, acting as an intermediate stop on a route that otherwise connects Oman, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and Australia. The landing here ensures that the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a remote Indian Ocean territory, is incorporated into a long-distance cable system rather than remaining isolated from international fiber connectivity.

Within the regional submarine cable graph, West Island's inclusion on the OAC gives the Cocos (Keeling) Islands a direct link to both the Middle Eastern and Australian nodes of the Indian Ocean cable network, placing this small and remote territory on a significant intercontinental cable corridor for the first time.