Alcatel-Lucent to build SPIN cable: will create new Australia NZ route UPDATE

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 30 July 2009 09:02

Business IT - Technology

Alcatel-Lucent has won a contract to build the 8,200 km SPIN submarine cable network that will link New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Norfolk Island and New Zealand and with existing systems will provide an alternative trans-Tasman link. (Reported comments from John Hibbard have been changed to more accurately reflect his views)

According to SPIN, its planned cable network will connect remote territories in the sub-region ending their isolation and will enhance international connectivity by linking to other submarine cable networks under completion such as French Polynesia OPT's Honotua system linking Papeete to Hawaii (due for completion in Q2 2010) and the already completed Gondwana system linking Noumea to Sydney.

SPIN will be composed of two segments each with maximum capacity of 640Gbps. Segment 1 will connect Nouméa in New Caledonia to Tahiti in French Polynesia with landing points in Vanuatu, Wallis, Samoa, and American Samoa. Segment 2 will link Noumea to Auckland with a landing point in Norfolk Island.

Spin has given few other details in its announcement of the Alcatel-Lucent contract but said in mid 2008 that SPIN would have access to one fibre pair on the Sydney Noumea cable, one pair between Tahiti and Hawaii and one 'express' pair between Noumea and Tahiti plus an 'omnibus' pair for inter-island traffic. Spin launched an international open tender for supply and construction of the system in June 2008, and said it expected to sign a contract with its chosen supplier by September 2008.

Spin CEO, Rémi Galasso, said at the time: "Spin will also offer an alternative route as existing systems are mainly north-south submarine cables enhancing traffic protection in the sub-region."

Submarine cable systems consultant, John Hibbard told iTWire that there was strong demand from trans_Tasman corporats for an alternative route between New Zealand and Australia, but he was uncertain whether Spin would meet their needs

Hibbard explained that at present there are only two systems providing trans-Tasman links: Southern Cross and the aging Tasman 2 which has minimal capacity. Southern Cross provides a fully redundant route, but via Hawaii and this adds significant latency, making Tasman 2 the preferred backup for organisations demanding low latency links. "While SPIN has lower latency than the loop via Hawaii of Southern Cross, the route direct across the Tasman is 2500km whereas via Noumea measures around 4000kms and has an intermediate stop and as such may temper demand from those users seeking the comparable latency," he told iTWire. "So if there was a direct alternative, it would seem to have advantages."

The New Zealand Government in May scrapped plans for a new Trans Tasman cable. In its 2008 budget the Government had announced a $15 million capital allocation to be used to support the development of a new cable to improve the resiliency of trans-Tasman connectivity. REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand), the Crown-owned company set up to establish, own and operate a high-speed telecommunications network for the research and education sectors, was appointed as the lead agency for the project and to be an anchor tenant.

It had been looking to work with Kordia which is planning a new trans-Tasman cable in conjunction with Pipe Networks , dubbed PPC-2 and with Kordia as the lead partner. However REANNZ said it had decided not to progress to issuing an RFP. Kordia told iTWire at the time that it would go to the board in September with a business case for the cable project.