The Southern Cross NEXT cable has landed in Coogee Beach in New South Wales, Australia, as part of the final stage of the submarine cable rollout between Los Angeles and Sydney.
The project will continue to finalize the branch landings in Fiji and it is expected the cable will then be ready for service in Q2, 2022.
Once live, the SX NEXT cable will provide an additional 72 terabits of data per second between Australia, New Zealand and the US and provide on-ramp connections to Pacific Islands Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati.
The 72 terabits of additional capacity is the equivalent of streaming more than 4.5 million Ultra HD 4k videos simultaneously.
Southern Cross CEO, Laurie Miller, said the SX NEXT cable will deliver significant benefits once fully operational and will double the amount of direct international cable capacity connectivity from the East Coast of Australia to the US West Coast.
“Australia and New Zealand will benefit from this new direct and low latency link with the technology innovation hub of the world in California. The new system will also complement our existing lowest latency links between Sydney and Auckland, and Auckland to Los Angeles enhancing our eco-system connectivity with our closest neighbours across the Tasman and the Pacific,” he said.
