APRIL 1, 2008 -- The Southern Cross Cable Network (search for Southern Cross) is supporting the move to high-speed broadband in Australia and New Zealand with the completion of the first stage of a big capacity upgrade.
Southern Cross Director of Sales and Marketing Ross Pfeffer said that "on 31 March 2008 Southern Cross lit up another 260 Gbits of capacity or 130 Gbits/sec on each of its two submarine fiber-optic cables that directly connect both Australia and New Zealand to the U.S. Internet. When completed later this year the current upgrade will take our total installed capacity to 860 Gbits/sec."
Pfeffer continued, "The current upgrade allows each fiber pair to provide 10 times more capacity, lowers capacity cost, enhances the network's resilience, and increases the range of services we can provide. Starting last September the upgrade was carefully executed with no disruptions to customer and internet services."
In addition to the upgrade, the Southern Cross also offers new pricing to support the move to high-speed broadband in both Australia and New Zealand. Pfeffer reported recent "substantial capacity purchases" from existing and new customers to support such broadband services.
Pfeffer also revealed that Southern Cross management is already planning additional upgrades during the remaining 16 years of the network's engineering design life.
The Southern Cross Cable Network provides international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii to the Unietd States. It comprises two submarine communications cables that were first commissioned in November 2000 and January 2001 at a cost of US$1.3 billion. The network is owned by Telecom NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%), and Verizon Business (10%).
