Laying of Second Internet Cable Begins in Sydney

Media Statement from Southern Cross Cable Network

Laying of Second Internet Cable Begins in Sydney

What will soon become Australia’s direct connection to the heart of the Internet was landed at Narrabeen, north of Sydney this morning (28 January). This landing begins the main-lay of the Southern Cross Cable Network’s second high-capacity link across the Pacific to North America.

Mr Ross Pfeffer, Marketing Director Asia Pacific for Southern Cross, said “It is appropriate so soon after the start of a century that will be dominated by the Internet, that Southern Cross should be here in Sydney building Australia’s gateway to this online future.

When completed the cable network will form a loop network (see map) to provide 120 Gbit/s of fully protected capacity between Australasia and North America - enough to transmit a 780m high stack of typed documents or two full-length motion pictures every second.

The cable was winched ashore through a one kilometre conduit from the cable ship Vercors, which then began its 3,665km journey to Lausala Bay, Fiji. A second ship will complete the Fiji-Hawaii segment in two parts, beginning in February, before Southern Cross makes its final approach to the US mainland.

“This is the first of many milestones in 2000 for Southern Cross,” says Ross Pfeffer. “Last year we laid over 13,500km of cable for Phase One, and 2000 will see us make quick work of our second Pacific traverse.

“A lot of hard work has gone into the planning, construction and marketing of this project. Soon we will have achieved our primary objective of removing the bandwidth bottleneck between Australasia and North America. Our capacity will mean that businesses and residential users can continue their love affair with the Internet and take advantage of exciting new broadband applications.”

- ENDS –

Images of the landing and additional information are available by contacting:

Philip Clark
Media Contact
Southern Cross Cable Network
Tel +64-4-4999-111
Sydney Mob (27-9 Jan) 0401 108 307
Email philip@svl.co.nz

www.southerncrosscables.com

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