Screeb:
There's very little incentive for Telstra to build a second trans-Tasman cable, due to their new cable which you mentioned - most of Telstra's traffic will now go through that cable, instead of going via NZ. They have no interest in going through NZ (aside from redundancy), so it would be pointless to build a trans-Tasman cable now. Don't forget that TelstraClear has very little pull with Telstra, so a cable is not going to be built just for them either.
So being able to offer this country alternative bandwidth to the SCC via a wholly owned telstra link from NZ-AUS-US wasn't enough incentive? If so then I wonder how PIPE/Kordia can justify the new investment...