Credit: Southern Cross Cable Network
Southern Cross has landed its Next cable connecting Australia with California in what has been called the largest capacity express route between the two nations and also New Zealand.
Known as SX Next, the cable will expand the capacity of US to Oceania global connectivity by up to an additional 72 terabits per second, the cable's owner, Pacific Carriage, said.
The cable is now connected to the HMB IX facility in Hermosa Beach, California. HMB IX is the owner and operator of submarine cable landing assets and the cable landing station facility and has multiple dark fibre backhaul routes connecting to Los Angeles.
The US' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a landing licence for the network in July last year.
“It can be easy to lose sight of the complexity and magnitude of engineering involved in building what is arguably the longest single-span submarine cable in the world, however, the efforts of the highly skilled teams in Southern Cross and our partners such as HMB IX demonstrate what can be achieved through the power of teamwork,” Pacific Carriage CEO Laurie Miller said.
“Our relationship with HMB IX goes back many years. PCL selected HMB IX for SX Next due to their expertise in delivering and managing submarine cable landings and cable landing stations, and their onward connectivity to our existing data centre locations in Los Angeles.”
Once completed next year, the Southern Cross cable networks will hit the US via 12 cable stations and eight key data centre hubs both there and in Australia. In total, these will cover six countries and eight time zones, all interconnected by over 45,000 kilometres of cable.
SX Next will form a third route in the Southern Cross network ecosystem connecting the US with Australia, Fiji, Tokelau, Kiribati and New Zealand.
“We are thrilled to be involved with PCL and the SX Next project, expanding route connectivity from the USA to Oceania,” HMB IX CEO Brett Lay said.
“Our team’s strong capabilities in managing and facilitating all aspects of permitting, landing, operating and maintaining submarine cable systems has proven itself to be a key factor for landing several major transpacific submarine cable systems, with more to follow.”
