Telstra will acquire a 25 percent stake in Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) and substantial capacity on both its existing network and the new Southern Cross NEXT subsea cable.
Existing stakeholders in SCCN include Spark NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%).
SCCN owns and operates the trans-Pacific Southern Cross Cable and has initiated work on the Southern Cross NEXT cable, which will be a high capacity express route, providing data-centre connectivity between Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles and is scheduled for completion by end-2020. Southern Cross NEXT is expected to cost around US$300 million and is designed to carry 72 Terabits of traffic.
Southern Cross Cables President and CEO Mr Anthony Briscoe said: “Southern Cross has always been a provider of high-quality customer focused and resilient international capacity solutions, and the addition of the new Southern Cross NEXT route to the existing platform will provide existing and future customers with further resiliency and connectivity options between Australia/New Zealand and to the US via Los Angeles. We are delighted that Telstra has committed to the cable as an anchor customer, and more so that Telstra sees the value in our capability long-term and is set to take a stake in the company.”
Telstra Group Executive for Enterprise Mr Michael Ebeid said: “Telstra has long been a key customer of Southern Cross and this investment will mean Telstra has an immediate ownership interest in the existing Southern Cross network, as well as in Southern Cross NEXT. This route is extremely important to our business as US to Australia traffic accounts for more than 80 percent of all the internet traffic to Australia. Southern Cross builds on Telstra’s existing footprint in Asia Pacific and creates a critical new path for ‘Australia In’ and ‘Australia Out’ connectivity.”
https://www.southerncrosscables.com
Southern Cross Cables to deploy Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme
Southern Cross Cables is deploying Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai tunable coherent optics and the 6500 T-series to enhance the scale, programmability and intelligence of its network.
Ciena said Southern Cross Cables is the first subsea deployment its WaveLogic Ai over compensated cable and includes the first deployment of 200Gbps wavelengths between Sydney and Auckland. Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai allows Southern Cross to monitor links in real-time, so it can determine the ideal capacity for each channel across any path. WaveLogic Ai also provides massive scalability by allowing Southern Cross to add an additional 6.4Tbps of wavelength expansion across its subsea and terrestrial networks.
Southern Cross’ existing programmable infrastructure is further enhanced with the introduction of the Ciena 6500 T-Series platform that scales to 24Tbps OTN switching capacity for efficient traffic grooming and includes Ciena’s advanced multi-layer control plane software to maximize network resiliency.
In addition, Southern Cross’ utilisation of Ciena’s Blue Planet Manage, Control, and Plan (MCP) software for improved network visibility through real-time software control, along with big data analytics and advanced network functionality through the Blue Planet Network Health Predictor, Performance Portal and Blue Planet V-WAN services underpin its position as one of the most flexible, and customer responsive submarine cable providers in the world.
“Our customers’ needs are changing almost daily as they move towards the cloud and larger web-scale data flows, particularly between continents,” said Southern Cross Cable Network Director of Marketing and Sales, Craige Sloots.
“Southern Cross Cables is setting a new industry benchmark by creating a more intelligent and programmable network that can adapt and quickly respond to dynamic customer demands,” said Rick Seeto, Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager, Asia/Pacific and Japan, Ciena.
