A survey of around 15,000km of Pacific Ocean seabed has reportedly found a faster route for the Southern Cross “Next” cable project, which is planned to connect Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles.
Southern Cross Cables yesterday said this had resulted in a new plan for the third route on its subsea network, with cable to be laid in waters off the Wallis and Fortuna islands, cutting the expected latency of the cable.
While the existing Southern Cross cable network provides 20 terabits per second capacity, the “Next” project will deliver an additional 60Tbps, Southern Cross said. The cable is estimated to cost around US$350 million.
The new cable is expected to be operational by late 2019, connecting Australia, New Zealand and the US to a number of Pacific nations, possibly including Fiji, Samoa, Tokelau and Kiribati, Southern Cross said.
