Southern Cross Completes the Loop

The final segment of the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) has entered into service, enabling the company to deliver 120Gb per second fully protected capacity between Australasia and the United States via its dual cable system.

The 4127km section, between Spencer Beach in Hawaii and Morro Bay in California, completes SCCN’s loop consisting of a full fibre ring of two cables between Australasia and Hawaii, and a collapsed single strand ring from Hawaii to Oregon and terrestrially to California.

The submarine cable network is configured in three fibre rings. A southern ring links Australasia and Hawaii, a nothern ring links Hawaii and mainland US, and a north-south ring that connects Australasia and the US.

The completion of this Hawaii-to-US section follows the cable landing at Morro Bay at the end of January. The 30,500 kilometer total network entered into service on November 15 last year (see story) when it landed in Sydney.

Chief executive officer and president of SCCN Baldo Sutich described the completion of this last section as “fulfilling our original dream”, saying the network is now set to provide “Australasians with the most direct and most secure connection possible to the heart of the Internet”. These services at “the heart of the Internet” that SCCN aims to help enable include broadband technologies such as video and audio streaming and online gaming.