Submarine fibre optic telecommunication system provider Pioneer Consulting announced on Wednesday that, with the CIF in place, it can now focus on the implementation and deployment of the NEXT system which promises to bring ”greater resiliency, redundancy and capacity to our extensive network, along with the ongoing development of product enhancements to meet the evolving requirements of our customers”.
The announcement of the achievement of CIF follows an announcement on Tuesday that Telstra had signed a conditional agreement to take up a 25% equity interest in the US$300 Southern Cross Cable Network - joining Spark New Zealand, Singtel and Verizon Business in the network.
“The achievement of CIF is a testament to the hard work of the combined Southern Cross and Pioneer Consulting team over many months and is a validation of the technology and expertise behind the new cable,” said Southern Cross President and CEO, Laurie Miller.
“The addition of the Southern Cross NEXT route to our platform will provide existing and future customers with further resiliency and connectivity options between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.”
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Southern Cross NEXT will be the largest capacity link providing data-centre connectivity between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles, and, given its robust design and route including branches, the 16,148km cable system will provide the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to the United States.
The new route will also provide critical international cable connectivity to the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati.
“We can now firmly focus on the implementation and deployment of the NEXT system which promises to bring greater resiliency, redundancy and capacity to our extensive network, along with the ongoing development of product enhancements to meet the evolving requirements of our customers,” said Southern Cross CTO, Dean Veverka.
The Southern Cross NEXT system has been designed and developed to be an extension of the existing Southern Cross two-cable ecosystem and will allow customers to leverage Southern Cross’ extensive point-of-presence network and access infrastructure already in place.
It will also enable Southern Cross NEXT customers to flexibly assign new and existing capacity across the Pacific’s three routes, maximising diversity and resiliency.
Services offered on the new system will be an extension and integration of the services offered across the current Southern Cross platform. The construction is being funded by a combination of capacity payments, equity contributions and financing.