Trans-Pacific telecommunications cable operator Southern Cross Cable Network has completed a planned upgrade that will triple capacity to 60 gigabits per second.
The upgrade to the 30,500km cable system between New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the United States, would step up to the new capacity on May 15, after operating at 20 Gbit/second since it was commissioned in November, Southern Cross said in a statement.
"This upgrade was brought forward from end-2001 but still could not have come soon enough," said Southern Cross spokesman Ross Pfeffer.
"The capacity currently on-stream has been insufficient to satisfy customer demand, so this upgrade will come as a big relief to Australasian Internet service providers."
Pfeffer said the cable would be further upgraded to 80 Gbit/second in September, and to 240 Gbit/second next year. The potential existed to increase total protected network capacity to 480 Gbit/second at a later date, he added.
The US$1 billion Southern Cross project is 50 percent owned by Telecom NZ, 40 percent by Cable & Wireless Optus and 10 percent by MCI Worldcom.
