The Southern Cross Trans-Pacific submarine cable network, which connects Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and the west coast of the U.S., has completed the deployment of Ciena’s 100G transmission equipment across its entire network.
The 100G upgrade brings total lit capacity across the two cables to 2.6 Tbps. If deployed on all Southern Cross fibres, along with gridless optical networking, our potential capacity capability increases to 12 Tbps, between Australia/New Zealand and the USA.
Southern Cross Sales and Marketing Director Ross Pfeffer says, “The implementation of 100G technology is a major milestone in the ongoing expansion and enhancement of our 30,000km submarine network in continued support of the development of high-speed broadband in Australia and New Zealand.
“Retail broadband data caps have expanded dramatically on the back of current international capacity prices in both Australia and New Zealand with demand for capacity continuing to grow at around 35 to 40 per cent annually,” Pfeffer stated. “Our deployment of this latest technology places Southern Cross in an even stronger position to stay well ahead of the demand growth resulting from Australia’s NBN (National Broadband Network) and New Zealand’s UFB (Ultra-fast Broadband) initiatives, and the growth associated with cloud services and new content. The long-standing Southern Cross policy of using the latest technology improvements to expand lit capacity and to lower marginal cost will ensure that Southern Cross remains in a position to cost-effectively support demand growth for many years.”
