Southern Cross Cable commissions third US access point

By NZPA

Monday 19th August 2002

Undersea cable company Southern Cross Cable Network has commissioned a new access point between New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii and the United States.

The new access point at San Jose, California, will improve access into key Internet and telecommunications markets in the US, such as Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Southern Cross director of Asia-Pacific, Ross Pfeffer said in a statement.

"Seventy percent of the Internet traffic from the Western United States and 40 percent of the world Internet traffic passes through the building that houses the new Southern Cross access point," Mr Pfeffer said.

Access for Southern Cross customers to the US mainland to date has been provided via two Southern Cross cable stations at Hillsboro, Oregon and Morro Bay, California.

The two-cable Southern Cross has 10 access points in total.

The company recently increased protected network capacity from 80 gigabits to 130 gigabits, as part of an upgrade programme that will culminate in 240 gigabits of capacity by 2003.

The cable provides faster broadband Internet access, as opposed to dial-up access.

Telecom NZ has a 50 percent stake in the cable, with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd-Optus holding 40 percent and WorldCom Inc with 10 percent.

Telecom's income last year included a $245 million dividend from its share in the cable.

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