Construction of the 14,000 kilometre Hawaiki submarine cable that will link New Zealand to Australia, Hawaii and mainland United States has started with a ground breaking ceremony at Bream Trail Farm, Mangawhai Heads, Northland attended by NZ prime minister John Key and communications minister Amy Adams.

Through REANNZ the government has become an anchor tenant of the cable at a cost of NZ$65 million. Adams said the Hawaiki cable would increase connectivity for New Zealanders and contribute to the growth of the digital economy with more than 30Tbps of capacity, a fivefold increase on current capacity

When the cable is complete around mid-2018, New Zealand will have four cable links to the rest of the world – through the two Southern Cross cables, the Tasman Global Access cable and Hawaiki.

The NZ$500m project was confirmed in March this year when all-New Zealand equity funding was secured from Remi Galasso, a submarine cable industry veteran, New Zealand businessman Sir Eion Edgar and telecommunications entrepreneur Malcolm Dick.

Continue to the full article on Computer Eorld - Nov 24, 2016