The agreement allows Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ) to connect its KAREN network to Pacific Fibre’s subsea cable system, which will link New Zealand and Australia to the US.
“We are very happy to have completed the negotiations, marking substantial and rapid progress from the Key Commercial Terms announced in May,” said Donald Clark, outgoing REANNZ CEO. “The contract sets REANNZ and KAREN up for lasting success, and is a critical part of delivering long-term unconstrained high performance networking for the research, education and innovation communities in New Zealand.”
REANNZ is a Crown-owned company started in 2005 and now has 129 organisations as members connecting at 186 sites across the country. This new agreement will give those groups access to a global network that connects over 100 other research and education networks.
REANNZ was the first customer to sign up to the Pacific Fibre cable back in May and this announcement marks the end of those negotiations.
“Announcing the REANNZ Key Terms in May gave important momentum to our engagement with our vendors, finance partners and other foundation customers,” said Mark Rushworth, CEO of Pacific Fibre. “It showed how a well-run government procurement process can support businesses such as ours, and we are offering considerable value to the KAREN community as a result.”
