Built over a two-year time-frame at a cost of $350 million, the system provides additional high-capacity connectivity between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles. It offers an extension to the existing Southern Cross ecosystem adding four fibre pairs, providing 72Tbps capacity that also reduces latency across the main trans-Pacific route. The project also expands connectivity to under served geographies, with the route providing international fibre connectivity to the nations of Tokelau and Kiribati for the first time.
Another way the project caught the eye of the judges was its status as one of the first industry implementations of the OpenCable concept, as well as the deployment of the world’s longest single-span 400GbE wavelength at the time of launch, future-proofing the route for upcoming traffic growth.
With CIF announced in September 2019 and the route entering service in July 2022, the project’s delivery timescale coincided almost exactly with Covid’s impact on telecoms infrastructure delivery, which particularly impressed the judges, who assessed it as “an ambitious project connecting many new territories, with impressive execution given the constraints of Covid.”
Since the project was recognised at the awards in London in 2022, Southern Cross has reported impressive growth on the route, and work to expand the initial capacity is already underway.
Mr Laurie Miller, Southern Cross President & CEO, said:“The ability of the team to deliver such an advanced and complex project during such a difficult period is testament to the drive and professionalism of the Southern Cross team and our partners. To be recognised for such an achievement with a Global Carrier Award is a wonderful and humbling endorsement by our industry peers.”
To nominate your company or project for a Global Carrier Award in 2023, click here.
