Vodafone unveils Pacific Fibre ten year deal

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Vodafone New Zealand and Pacific Fibre today announced that they have signed a multi-million dollar agreement for the supply of international bandwidth on the new Pacific Fibre cable system.

Under the 10-year deal, Vodafone will become Pacific Fibre's biggest New Zealand customer.

Pacific Fibre's undersea cable system will connect Australia to New Zealand, then to the USA and will be launched in early 2014.

Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners said Pacific Fibre was bringing much needed competition to the international bandwidth market.

"By partnering with an innovative, entrepreneurial business such as Pacific Fibre, we're helping to break down the digital divide between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

"This deal will allow us to scale our customer offers over the next 10 years delivering the quality and quantity of capacity that our customers need now and into the future.

"This will help us to support New Zealanders' online ambitions by making sure they can confidently connect to the world and the world can confidently connect to New Zealand."

Mark Rushworth, Pacific Fibre CEO, said the Vodafone deal was its biggest to date, coming hard on the heels of a contract with REANNZ.

Sir Stephen Tindall, Pacific Fibre co-founder, says building Pacific Fibre moves us closer to the US market.

"It's like parking New Zealand off the West Coast of America, removing the tyranny of distance. It will help foster future innovation and greater economic development for New Zealand."

- NZ HERALD ONLINE