Cable speed to treble

The company which runs the 30,500-kilometre trans-Pacific cable system says from May 15 the on-stream protected capacity will treble.

Currently the cable runs at 20 gigabytes per second but this will be raised to 60 gigabytes per second.

Southern Cross Cable executive Ross Pfeffer says the upgrade was brought forward from a target date at the end of 2001 but still could not have come soon enough.

"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.

"Australasians are extremely enthusiastic about broadband internet, but that requires large amounts of bandwidth, both to the home and across the ocean to the United States."

Another upgrade is planned for September to 80 gigabytes per second and that speed will be trebled to 240 gigabytes per second next year.

Telecom New Zealand has a 50% share in the cable. Australian telco Cable & Wireless Optus, which has been taken over by SingTel, has a 40% share and MCI WorldCom has 10%.

There have been suggestions that, with the takeover of Cable & Wireless Optus, Telecom can now trigger a pre-emptive right to buy the company's share in the cable.

However other analysts have also suggested that TEL could be looking to cash up the asset with a sale to SingTel.

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