Southern Cross Cable’s CEO, Anthony Briscoe has announced that the undersea cable connecting New Zealand to the rest of the world will be fully functional for at least another 15 years.

“After an extensive consulting process over the last year, with some of the world’s foremost technical experts, and with Alcatel the supplier of the cable, the clear advice was there is every reason to be confident that the Southern Cross Cable Network will be fully functional until at least 2030” he said.

“As a result we presented the findings of our studies to our seven largest customers who have unanimously agreed to extend their “Capacity Use Agreements” until 2030. Our customers in New Zealand, Australia, the US and the Pacific demand reliability and capacity. This decision by Southern Cross has removed uncertainty in the market as to future supply and with an availability record on our protected circuit of over 99.999% for the last year, cements the company’s position as a dependable service provider.

At the same time Southern Cross has moved to stay well ahead of the demand curve. From a total capability of just 160 Gbps in 2001 to 6500 Gbps today and with future upgrades planned as well, the needs of our customers in New Zealand and Australia are well covered, Mr Briscoe noted.