Pacific Fibre questions Sthn Cross cable internet capability

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Southern Cross says its submarine internet cables are more than capable of shouldering the demand from the ultra-fast broadband network, but its rival Pacific Fibre is arguing over the numbers.

Southern Cross operates New Zealand's only international internet link between Australia and the United States and announced yesterday it had trialled equipment capable of transmitting at 100 gigabits per second on each channel of its cable system.

Although the test was successful, the company said it plans to only increase speeds to 40 gigabits per second in 2012 and is likely to upgrade to the faster equipment in 2015.

Next year's improvements would give the cables a minimum total capacity of 6 terabits per second (6000 gigabits), putting the company well ahead of the expected demand, said Southern Cross' sales and marketing director, Ross Pfeffer.

Internet use is set to skyrocket following the rollout of the Government's ultra-fast broadband network, which will hook up 75 per cent of the country to internet speeds of 100 megabits per second before 2020.

Although Southern Cross was confident it could shoulder this internet boom, rival Pacific Fibre believed the company had underestimated the growth expected.

Pacific Fibre plans to build its own US$400 million ($490 million) submarine cable between Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles before the end of 2013.

However, Telecommunications Users Association chief executive Paul Brislen said the bottleneck in the cable market was an economic, not a technical one.

"From what every [internet service provider] tells me, they pay too much for international capacity [from Southern Cross]," he said.

He said Pacific Fibre's cable should put downward pressure on what Southern Cross charges.