New South Island to Sydney Cable + Datacenter

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Lias

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#280434 15-Dec-2020 07:46

Mods feel free to move this if you feel the need, I put in Broadband because the cable is of most interest to me.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123680844/meridian-gets-in-behind-700m-plan-for-hyperscale-data-centre-near-invercargill

TL;DR the guy behind the Hawaiiki Cable and the guy behind CallPLus have teamed up to propose a massive new datacenter near InverCargill, along with a new Invercargill to Sydney cable with Christchurch/Wellington branch lines.

I've been banging the drum about a wellington/SI to Aus cable being a good idea for awhile now so I'm rather enthusiastic.. Hopefully things line up for them.

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Batman

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#2621667 15-Dec-2020 08:57

Will my EA Amazon server ping improve?

PolicyGuy

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#2621704 15-Dec-2020 10:11

This is seriously good news, and the guys behind it make it a real possibility.

NZ really needs an East Coast Cable to provide resilient national infrastructure for when a Biggish One (or even The Big One 😱) hits Wellington, cutting off the links between North and South Islands.
If they ran a spur to the Chathams, that would really allow the Chatham Islanders to be a part of NZ

An Invercargill to Australia cable would provide alternate routing from Auckland to Christchurch via Oz.

jonb

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#2621848 15-Dec-2020 11:07

Great idea, one of the tech giants should sign up for the green credentials hopefully (as well as cheap electricity)

Govt. should stump up for the Stewart and Chatham Islands spurs, would be cheap whilst the cable boat is in the neighbourhood.

Scotdownunder

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#2621949 15-Dec-2020 12:27

Don’t think a spur is required for Stewart Is. as it is a short hop and has low capacity requirements, but yes use the cable laying ship and the Invercargill landing site. Definitely agree Gvmt should fund Chatham Is. spur.

wellygary

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#2622082 15-Dec-2020 15:47

PolicyGuy:

This is seriously good news, and the guys behind it make it a real possibility.

NZ really needs an East Coast Cable to provide resilient national infrastructure for when a Biggish One (or even The Big One 😱) hits Wellington, cutting off the links between North and South Islands.

Spark already has a Levin-Nelson cable that would likely not be impacted by a Significant Wellington Earthquake

https://www.sparknz.co.nz/news/Spark-inter-island-upgrade-builds-resiliency/

DarkShadow

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#2622161 15-Dec-2020 16:26

jonb:

Govt. should stump up for the Stewart and Chatham Islands spurs, would be cheap whilst the cable boat is in the neighbourhood.

There's an almost-entirely censored page on the Briefing to Incoming Minister for Crown Infrastructure, that hints the government is already planning some kind of upgrade for Chathams. 😅

PolicyGuy

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#2622164 15-Dec-2020 16:33

wellygary:

PolicyGuy:

This is seriously good news, and the guys behind it make it a real possibility.

NZ really needs an East Coast Cable to provide resilient national infrastructure for when a Biggish One (or even The Big One 😱) hits Wellington, cutting off the links between North and South Islands.

Spark already has a Levin-Nelson cable that would likely not be impacted by a Significant Wellington Earthquake

https://www.sparknz.co.nz/news/Spark-inter-island-upgrade-builds-resiliency/

I'd like to hope so, but the Kaikoura earthquake did a lot of damage in Wellington.
Based on that, a Wellington Big One would leave a lot of Levin in ruins

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PolicyGuy

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#2622170 15-Dec-2020 16:48

DarkShadow:

jonb:

Govt. should stump up for the Stewart and Chatham Islands spurs, would be cheap whilst the cable boat is in the neighbourhood.

There's an almost-entirely censored page on the Briefing to Incoming Minister for Crown Infrastructure, that hints the government is already planning some kind of upgrade for Chathams. 😅

Chatham Islanders rely on GEO satellite for their Internet access, so it's kinda s-l-o-w.

Apart from 'ordinary Chatham Islanders', I'm sure RocketLab's CI ground-station would love a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection. And a StarLink Gateway would give easy high-speed Internet access to folks all over the Chathams, including Pitt Island.

There's also a couple of potential Defence and Public Safety applications:

An 'industrial strength' ADSB ground station would give visibility over a big chunk of Australia - NZ - South America airline traffic
It'd be a great spot for a RADARSAT downlink station, receiving a radar picture of all the shipping in a portion of the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea that otherwise isn't covered. You'd want another station in western Southland to get traffic from the next swathe west. This kind of capability is referred to in the current Defence Ten Year Plan.