New undersea cable to link Australia and New Zealand
The three telecommunications providers have contracted the telco equipment vendor to deploy the Tasman Global Access (TGA) submarine cable connecting the two countries.
The three telcos will jointly invest around US$70 million in the project, which is due to start in early 2015.
Australia enjoys good connectivity with Asia, which is achieving strong internet traffic growth in-line with global economic shifts.
Alcatel-Lucent submarine networks president, Philippe Dumont, said the project confirmed the continued growth and connectivity requirements of the region.
"We are pleased to provide our 100G coherent technology to help the consortium build the Tasman Global Access cable that will significantly improve the bandwidth and reliability for traffic to and from New Zealand."
The French-based contractor said the cable will have a capacity of at least 20 Terabits per second (Tbit/s) and offer low latency connectivity across the Tasman Sea.
The connection will be made between Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, to Raglan on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.
The TGA will provide an alternative route for trans-Tasman traffic. Alcatel-Lucent said it will significantly improve connectivity and strengthen links into fast-growing Asian markets.
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In a joint statement, Spark New Zealand managing director, Simon Moutter, and Vodafone New Zealand chief executive, Russell Stanners, said the TGA will strengthen reliable ultra-broadband connectivity in Australasia for a growing range of applications, including Cloud computing, datacentre, content delivery, government and enterprise.
"We are seeing increased data content being provided from Australia-based servers by global companies and being accessed by New Zealand internet users. An additional cable connection with Australia will strengthen the business case for international data servers to be located in New Zealand, and improve access for Australian and other international businesses to New Zealand."
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