Posted at 8:17 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, 2007
New underwater data cable to link Hawai'i, Australia
Bloomberg News Service
Telstra Corp., Australia's biggest telephone company, will build a 5,600-mile underwater data cable linking Australia with Hawai'i to meet increasing demand for high-speed Internet services.Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded the contract to supply and lay the cable. The value of the contract is confidential, Telstra spokeswoman Sarah McKinnon said today.
The cable will reduce Telstra's "reliance on foreign-owned companies in order to compete globally," Chief Operations Officer Greg Winn said in an e-mailed statement. The project will be completed by mid 2008.
Telstra currently purchases capacity from Southern Cross Cable, which is jointly owned by Telecom Corp. of New Zealand, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. and Verizon Communications Inc., for the majority of its data transmission to North America.
