Denis Opudo
The laying of the $300 million worth undersea fibre that links New Zealand and Australia to the US is over. According to Remi Galasso, the CEO of Hawaiki, the 15,000 kilometers cable system laid by Hawaiki will give the largest and fastest connection between the US and Australia. The other branch of it will link American Samoa. Furthermore, Hawaiki has installed branching units. This aims at expanding the network to various Pacific countries like Fiji and Tonga.
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The main aim of building the cable was to channel data at a speed of 43.8Tbps. However, according to the director of Hawaiki, Malcolm Dick, there is room to increase the capacity in the coming days. This is because there is faster technology that has been developed at the network endpoints. Dick added that the capacity of the cable system is 80,000 times more than that of satellite links that are currently found in the region. Dick said that the capacity is enough to download 1,200 high definition videos after every second.
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That means that the fibre will be enough for New Zealand and Australia in the coming future.
The cable was constructed by TE SubCom who will also be responsible for the maintenance of the link for 25 years. The cable has a lifespan of 25 years, therefore, TE SubCom will responsible for its maintenance for the whole of its life. The fibre is connected at Coogee beach of Sydney and links to the Australian network through SY4 the data center of Equinix. Galasso said that the fibre would help to have more competition, diversity, and connectivity in the markets. Plans are in place to put up more subsea cables to link Australia to its neighboring islands. This includes Solomon Islands cable of PNG that raised concerns of the national security in July 2018.
