Internet provider Southern Cross has
completed the final stage in the laying of its 29,000km purpose-built
trans-Pacific Internet cable.
The submarinefibre optic cable, which will provide a direct connection
between Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and America, landed on Tuesday
in Oregon.
Southern Cross has been forced to delay its deadline to go live because
of difficulties in obtaining permits to land on the US coastline, but the
company has now committed to November 15 as its ready for service date.
The Oregon stage of the cable link signals the start of laying the final
section of the cable network between Oregon and Hawaii, which will
eventually carry 20 million direct connections between America and
Australia.
Southern Cross will provide high bandwidth capacity with a forecasted
transmission delay of 70 milliseconds between Sydney and Oregon.
Southern Cross chief executive officer Baldo Sutich said a major
incentive for the completion of the service was the large potential
customer base.
“With over 50 per cent of all Web content residing in the US, these
people want fast, direct access to North America,” he said.
“Our landing points in Oregon, California, and Hawaii mean that Southern
Cross will also enable US-based companies to extend their global networks
to the Net-hungry populations of Australian and New Zealand.”
Sutich said the company had received “strong demand” locally for
connections between Australasia and the United States, as well as from US
carriers wishing to extend their networks to the South Pacific. According
to the company, total capacity from sales to date total AUS$2 billion
(US$1.2 billion).