Oceanic cable to double New Zealand's internet capacity launches from Auckland

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

The Auckland segment of Southern Cross Cable's Next cable came ashore last year and is now live (video first published in July 2021).

A submarine cable that will double New Zealand’s internet capacity launched from Takapuna beach in Auckland on Tuesday.

Ninety-five per cent of New Zealand’s internet traffic passes along submarine cables.

The US350 million (NZ$500m) cable, a joint venture from Southern Cross and Spark, would double the country’s internet capacity .

The cable will provide up to an additional 72 terabits per second of capacity, which is equivalent to streaming more than 4.5 million ultra HD videos simultaneously.

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The first section of the Southern Cross submarine Internet cable was pulled ashore at Takapuna Beach, Auckland on Tuesday.

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The armoured cable which carries 72 terabits of data per second is about the width of a garden hose.

The cable is made of a series of glass fibre strands, protected within a copper, plastic and steel cable, that is laid along the ocean floor by ship.

Its 15,000 kilometre route will run from Takapuna, Auckland to Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, before finally arriving in California, United States.

Information is tranmited along the cable using light. High-tech lasers send light signals along the glass cables which are received by equipment at the other end.

Southern Cross marketing director Craige Sloots, said before the cable could be laid, engineers mapped the ocean floor along the route.

“Fundamentally it is a bit like building a road. You need to get a view of the topography, to know where the trenches and underwater mountains are before you can figure out where you can lay the cable.”

The Southern Cross Next cable will about double the internet capacity of New Zealand.

After surveying more than 15,000km of seabed from Los Angeles to Auckland in 2017, Southern Cross has begun the process of laying the cable.

Internet cables are wound by hand around huge spools into special cable-laying ships. Then like thread the cable is unspooled into the sea while the ship sails along the trans-Pacific route.

The final few kilometres of cable are covered in an extra layer of reinforced steel and buried, to protect it from being dredged up or cut by anchors.

This cable, called the Southern Cross Next, is the second Southern Cross submarine Internet cable to be connected to New Zealand. The first was laid in 2000.

Each cable has an expected lifespan of about 30 years.

The cable would significantly increase the online capability for New Zealand business, Sloots said.

“This cable is the biggest that has ever been connected to New Zealand. It will roughly double the capability of Internet traffic coming out of the country.”

Digital Economy and Communications Minister David Clark, said New Zealand’s geographic isolation made the country highly reliant on submarine cables.

“Technology like this is critical for New Zealand to form stronger international partnerships that unlock valuable data volumes and drive innovation forward.”

The cable is due to be fully operational by April next year.