NOVEMBER 3, 2008 -- Southern Cross Cable Network (search for Southern Cross) today announced further initiatives to support high-speed broadband in New Zealand and Australia.
"With the availability of more capacity from our latest network upgrade, we have reduced prices by at least 44% and introduced a revolutionary new product to support high-speed broadband," reports Ross Pfeffer, director of sales and marketing.
Previously, the company's most popular product gave ISPs the option to increase capacity throughput by reducing their provision for restoration, say company representatives. The new product enables ISPs to enjoy the best of both worlds-- maximum throughput with maximum protection. And both are achieved at a much lower cost, says Southern Cross.
"Southern Cross is the region's most important provider of international connectivity, so it's crucial that the full security of our protected ring network is available to internet users," notes Pfeffer.
"We have made Drop Restoration available with new capacity purchases, and we are taking the further initiative of retrofitting it to over 80% of existing capacity from Australasia," he says. "The retrofit to existing capacity is provided to ISPs on a free trial basis for a period of one year. ISPs can easily extend their existing capacity retrofit until 2020 for no charge when they make their normal new capacity purchases."
This Drop Restoration product initiative requires Southern Cross to double its capacity allocations. So the capacity boost from the current upgrade, which takes the protected network to 430 Gbits/sec, will now be used very quickly. "We have already invited suppliers to tender for the next upgrade, which will be installed within 1 to 2 years," Pfeffer confirms.
Ongoing technology improvements are making large, low-cost upgrades increasingly attractive. The recently available 40-Gbit/sec channel speed technology takes the potential size of Southern Cross from 1.2 to 4.8 Tbits/sec of fully protected capacity.
"With future capacity demand growing very quickly as high speeds and video enrich the Internet, it will be business as usual for Southern Cross as it gets on with the job of implementing seamless capacity and product upgrades," maintains Pfeffer. "Our undersea network infrastructure is engineered to reliably function until at least 2025, and that's plenty of time for capacity potential to increase dramatically beyond 4.8 Tbits/sec. The next step, based on a channel speed that is 2.5 times higher, is already being developed for submarine cable upgrades."
"Southern Cross is committed to using future upgrade capacity to continue price reductions and to provide new product improvements that support the expanding requirements of hi-speed broadband in both Australia and New Zealand," he adds.
Southern Cross Cable Network provides international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii to the U.S. It comprises two submarine communications cables, which were first commissioned in November 2000 and January 2001 at a cost of $1.3 billion. They provide Australasian broadband users with international connections to the U.S. West coast, where global Internet hubs are located.Â
The Southern Cross Network has been engineered until 2025. In 2001, total installed capacity was 80 Gbits/sec; in January 2003, the total protected network was expanded to 240 Gbits/sec; and by the end of 2008, total installed protected capacity will be 430 Gbits/sec.