New sub-sea cable will provide fastest internet connection between APAC and US

Australia is one step closer to receiving ultra-fast connectivity from the US after the green light was given for an enormous sub-sea cable to be installed.

Southern Cross Cables and EGS have successfully mapped 15,000 km of seabed spanning Clovelly to Los Angeles to optimise the fastest and safest route to lay its US$350mn Southern Cross NEXT undersea cable.

The cable, once laid and operation in late-2019, will deliver the highest capacity and lowest latency internet connection for Australians, New Zealanders and several Pacific Island nations accessing US-based web services and apps.

RELATED STORIES:

• How and why businesses need to capitalise on the rise of the Internet of Things
• ACCC to crack down on misleading broadband speed claims
• Read the latest Business Review Australia magazine
   

The cable is expected to provide an additional 60TBps of capacity for customers; the equivalent of roughly 1,875 HD movies per second, adding to the existing 20TBps of capacity of the current Southern Cross systems

The survey, which began in February, found a slightly faster route than first anticipated, shaving further latency off what was already set to be the lowest latency connection between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Addtionally, the survey uncovered a previously-unidentified shipwreck, 37 kilometres off the coast of Sydney.

“People tend to think their Facebook and Snapchat content is delivered from overseas by satellite and that’s incorrect,” said Southern Cross Cable Network President and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Briscoe.

“For the overwhelming majority of internet delivery, our connections are made to various websites and apps from abroad by a series of ‘pipes’ that rest on seabeds across the globe, and those submarine cables are no thicker than a garden hose. People don’t realise that delivering a submarine cable is among the most critical infrastructure projects on the planet.

“The route we have chosen will deliver the fastest connection between the shores of Australia, New Zealand and US – and we’re also connecting up several Pacific Island nations as well.”