Telstra to build Australia-Hawaii cable link

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 28 March 2007 11:43

Business IT - Networking

With Pipe Networks on the verge of committing to its own link from Australia to Guam, Telstra has announced plans for a cable to Hawaii, to reduce its dependency on foreign-owned cables.

The move comes as Pipe Networks is expressing confidence  that its plan to build a cable, to increase competition on the route, will come to fruition. The key factor is securing commitment from carriers and ISP customers. Telstra may now be approaching these same customers, but unlike Pipe it competes with them so they may still lean strongly towards Pipe's offering.

Pipe maintains that while prices might dip in the short-term without a system independent of the dominant players, prices will inevitably rise.

The Telstra cable will provide transmission capacity of 1.28tbps to Hawaii where it will interconnect with other cables providing direct access to mainland USA in which Telstra already owns capacity.

Telstra COO, Greg Winn, said the 9000 kilometre Sydney-Hawaii link would significantly reduce Telstra's  the reliance on foreign-owned companies in order to compete globally.

"Owning the infrastructure that provides this vital connection to Australia enables Telstra to deliver additional network capacity and reliability to our retail and wholesale customers, and will maximise returns for shareholders when we re-route traffic from existing routes owned by competitors," Winn said.

Telstra says the cable will also enable it to expand its end-to-end service offering that ranges from IP, mobile and intelligent network services to voice and data hubs, call centres and advanced multimedia as well as e-commerce applications.

The cable wil be built by Alcatel Submarine Networks and is expected to be finished by mid 2008.

Displaying an ignorance of history, Jean Godeluck, president of Alcatel-Lucent's submarine network activity, said: "Our partnership with Telstra for undersea projects dates back to the early '90s and includes the successful installation of submarine systems for Telstra such as the Bass Strait and Tasman projects."

In the late 80s the Overseas Telecommunications Commission, later Corporation and now part of Telstra, commissioned Australia's first submarine fibre cable, Tasman-2 to New Zealand and insisted it be made in Australia. Alcatel built a cable plant at Port Botany which made the cable and numerous others. The plant was officially opened in April 1990 and operated until the industry collapse of the late 90s forced its closure.