Southern Cross begins laying

of second cable

SOUTHERN Cross Cable Network has begun laying its second cable between Australia and the United States, with the landing of the two 3-kilo metre shore ends at Laucala Bay in Fiji late September.

The two shore ends will be gathered Irom the seabed in April 2000 by separate cable laying vessels. One will continue lay ing to Sydney, the other to Hawaii. The return connection from California to Syd ney via Hawaii and Fiji (Phase Two) is scheduled for service in October 2000, with Phase One due for completion in June 2000.

“This is a very important milestone for the Southern Cross project,” says Ross Pfeffer, Marketing Director Asia Pacific for Southern Cross. “These landings are partic ularly significant because they mark the beginning of cable laying for Phase Two of the network.”

All others areas of Phase Two con struction are also now underway. More than 50 per cent of the construction work for the four Phase Two cable stations has been

completed, along with 20 per cent of net work equipment and 15 per cent of Phase Two cable manufacturing.

The construction of a second Phase enables Southern Cross to configure a triple ring, loop network.

“Phase Two will deliver our cus tomers the protected capacity they need for business growth and business security,” says Ross Pfeffer.

“Both cables will have 120Gbit/s of capacity between Australasia and Califor nia. Our Phase Two link effectively exists to provide protected capacity. The same signal will be transmitted down both sides of the network so that, in the unlikely event that one cable is physically broken, service will continue around the other side of the net work.”

If a cable breaks, it is typically out of service for 12 days, but if the break occurs in depths greater than two kilometres, repairs have been known to take up to 50 days. “Links with the Internet are of such importance to Australasian businesses that

the risk of these sorts of delays is unaccept able,” says Mr Pfeffer.

“Southern Cross has found an over whelming preference in the market for the additional security of protected capacity.

Ninety-five per cent of capacity com mitments at our second Data Gathering Meeting in August were for protected capacity.” ■

The Southern Cross cable will enable faster access to the internet for schools and businesses