DonGould:mercutio:wired: Problem with landing it near Wellington is that there is a big trench to the west with boulders that keep moving in it. These kinda mash up a cable hence people avoid that area. Maybe further south is ok?
They've already determined that Antarctica isn't safe for running cables to.
I've seen a few comments about Antarctica.? The biggest customer down there would be the US.? For the amount of data they'd be using, I think that it could be hard to convince anyone the business case for putting a cable down that far, though I guess that eventually they'll have to replace the satellite link they're using currently.
It would make for a very expensive cable though... I'd guess you'd be back to the $400m mark given the distance.
But would you just land that cable at Bluff?? Why would you want to build up the South Island when there's already 3 transit providers down that far?
Does anyone have any idea how much data the US move from down there?
Heard on National Radio recently that a cable isn't feasible to McMurdo or South pole due to constantly moving ice. It'll take out the cable on sea floor and where it lands but also anywhere on land where ice moves too.
Maybe they could make stretchy fibre or lay lots of slack and keep moving it back. :-P