The system has been named the Te Waipounamu subsea cable in reference to the Maori name of the South Island of New Zealand.
“Te Waipounamu cable is going to be a game changer for the connectivity of NZ South Island. It will also unlock the huge potential of Southland in terms of sustainable data storage,” said Remi Galasso, founder of Intelia NZ.
“It’s a fantastic challenge for our team and we are proud to continue contributing to New Zealand digital development.”
The 3,000km system will feature 16 fibre pairs, comprised of 4 fibre pairs from Invercargill to Australia with a capacity of 120Tbps total, and 12 fibre pairs between Sydney and Melbourne with a capacity of 35Tbps per fibre pair.
The Sydney and Melbourne trunk creates an alternative and competitive backhauling option between the two largest cities in Australia.
“Te Waipounamu cable represents a significant investment of NZD 160 million that will be funded by a mix of equity, debt and capacity contract commitments from major industry players both in Australia and New Zealand,” added Perrine Dhalluin, director at Intelia NZ.
With an expected latency of under 25 milliseconds, once operational, the Te Waipounamu subsea cable will be the fastest high-capacity route between New Zealand and Australia.
It will also deliver significant benefits for Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city and for Dunedin a leader in New Zealand’s digital development.
The cable will also serve as strategic infrastructure for the country, offering network redundancy for existing North Island subsea cables.
“Our plan is to finalise a supplier contract by April 2024 and start in parallel the permitting process in order to target a system commissioning by 2026,” said Georges Krebs, chief technical officer at Intelia NZ.
