The submarine cable system, which will link Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., is set to be completed in 2019.
Southern Cross Cables selected Hong Kong-based marine survey provider EGS to scout the sea floor between Sidney, Australia, and Los Angeles to establish the most suitable route for the $350 million Southern Cross NEXT submarine cable.
Bermuda-based Southern Cross Cables is a joint venture between by Telecom NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%).
EGS’ survey vessel Geo Resolution is expected to complete the survey in four months. The NEXT project is designed to interconnect with existing Southern Cross systems as well as 15 cable station and data center locations currently accessible by Southern Cross Cables across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and the U.S.
The subsea cable system, which is expected to be fully completed in 2019, is designed to provide an additional 60 terabits per second of capacity, adding to the existing 20 Tbps of capacity from the current Southern Cross systems.
“There’s a common belief internet connections in Australia are ultimately provided by satellites – that’s wrong. Australia is connected to the global internet via thousands of kilometers of undersea cables,” said Anthony Briscoe, president and CEO of Southern Cross Cables’ operating company Southern Cross Cable. “Given the size of the cable, the nature of the undersea terrain and the vastness of our oceans, repairing that cable is a monumental task so we must ensure it is laid with minimal risk of damage. This means surveying the sea floor along the entire route to avoid any hurdles that may interfere with, or even sever an important piece of infrastructure.”
Tiger Cable System inks strategic agreement with Rapid Telecom
Tiger Cable System, a consortium formed to build and operate an international terrestrial cable system from the Arabian Gulf to Europe via Iraq, Kurdistan and Turkey, signed a strategic partnership agreement with Bahraini telecommunications and information services company Rapid Telecom.
Rapid Telecom is in the process of acquiring Middle Eastern terrestrial fiber-optic cable system GCCIX, connecting Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
