Pipe Networks teams with Kordia for new Aus-NZ sub cable

Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 April 2008 05:12

Business IT - Networking

Just last week Southern Cross Cable, which is the main link between Australia and New Zealand,  was talking up its upgrade plans with sales marketing director Ross Pfeffer saying: "Southern Cross upgrades enable us to support high speed broadband through greatly expanding supply and lowering prices both in Australia and New Zealand. Southern Cross will continue to be very successful in the increasingly competitive Australian capacity market and we recognize the need to support the New Zealand capacity market where we are the only significant supplier by continuing to price capacity from both Australia and New Zealand on exactly the same basis."

Pipe says that the Sydney landing station for PPC-1 was designed to co-locate the PPC-2 system and the PPC-1 cable system has two additional pairs of fibre installed to a branching unit in the waters 120km east of Sydney.

According to Slattery: "this investment in the additional pairs of fibre will allow any new New Zealand to Australia cable to simply interconnect to PPC-1 in the waters off Sydney and directly connect to those spare pairs which will already be connected to our landing station in Sydney. As a result this negates many of the costs, timing and permitting issues associated with landing PPC-2 into Australia."

Pipe says that "to achieve its interest in PPC-2," Pipe International will contribute landing station space in Australia, the allocated two pairs of fibre on the Sydney section on PPC-1 and initially 240Gbps of onward capacity on PPC-1.