Pipe's PPC-1 cable feels the heat from Southern Cross

Stuart Corner
Monday, 15 March 2010 13:47

IT Industry - Market

Internode, one of the first and most enthusiastic supporters of Pipe Networks' PPC-1 cable, is taking more capacity on Southern Cross with Internode CEO Simon Hackett effusive in his praise for the system, saying it's a better proposition than PPC-1.

Internode has signed a contract to expand its capacity on the Southern Cross Cable Network. It will take an additional 2.5Gbps of capacity from this week taking its total capacity on the network to 7.5Gbps, fully protected, and will shortly move to a total of 10Gbps fully protected.

Hackett, said: "We expect to further expand our protected Southern Cross capacity to 20Gbps by some time next year…The Southern Cross Cable proposition, with the lowest latency to the US and fully protected circuit capacity, is the highest quality Internet path to the US – hands down."

Just a few months ago Hackett was singing the praises of Pipe Networks' PPC-1 cable, of which Internode was one of the first customers. In October 2009, Internode reduced prices for and increased data quotas on its broadband plans with Hackett saying Internode had been able to deliver more value to customers "because of the increased capacity and lower costs delivered by Pipe's new PPC-1 Pacific cable."

Even before PPC-1 came into service, Internode was testing the system and Hackett was foreshadowing Internode placing a significant amount of traffic on the system. "As the first customer to trial PPC-1 ahead of its official launch, Internode now has full confidence in the fibre-optic cable's readiness for official handover to foundation commercial customers, including Internode, on October 8," Hackett said in September 2009.

Internode said at that time that it expected the Pipe cable to carry as much as one third of its total international data traffic. "As well as putting downward pressure on international data transit prices, the PPC-1 link creates additional redundancy for Internode's data paths to the US," the company said.

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