November 24, 2016
Hawaiki Cable to boost NZ internet
New Zealand’s internet capacity will be increased fivefold once a new 14,000 kilometre fibre cable is lit in mid-2018.
The sod was cut at Bream Tail in Mangawhai yesterday for the landing station for the Hawaiki Submarine Cable.
Investors in the US$300 million project include submarine cable industry veteran Remi Galasso, his Queenstown neighbour, sharebroker Sir Eion Edgar, and cashed up CallPlus founder Malcolm Dick.
Mr Galasso says cable laying ship will drop the cable at the beach in June and take it through to Oahu, Hawaii, with stubs going to Sydney, New Caledonia, Tonga and American Samoa.
Another cable will be drawn from Pacific City in Oregon to Oahu.
Customers already signed up include Amazon, Vodafone and REANNZ, which handles the big data needs of the country’s universities and research institutes.
Mr Galasso expects other telecommunications companies, internet service providers and content providers will want to lease capacity for their primary or back-up needs.
It’s expected the advent of the greater capacity will change the competitive nature and pricing structure of an industry where until now has relied on one supplier, the Southern Cross cable.
The Northland site was chosen because it offers safe waters for the cable ship, it’s relatively sheltered from tsunami and other natural disasters, and it’s close by the land-based fibre backbone.
Welcoming manuhiri including Prime Minister John Key to the beach, Te Uri O Hau chair Russell Kemp said he was excited by the prospects it would bring for jobs and development in the north.
Communications Minister Amy Adams said the pattern worldwide is that digital businesses tend to cluster round places where data is fast and secure, so Mangawhai and the north could be in for a boom.
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