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NZ group plans $628m Pacific cable
11 March 2010
A group of New Zealand entrepreneurs are planning a cable to increase the country’s capacity to California and Australia
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New Zealand
fibre
Pacific
submarine cable
Australia
Southern Cross
Pacific Fibre, a New Zealand investor group, is planning to build a $628 million fibre optic cable linking New Zealand, Australia and the US.
Entrepreneurs Sam Morgan, Stephen Tindall and Rod Drury are part of an “early stage” venture to build the submarine fibre cable, which will have five times the capacity of the existing Southern Cross system. Morgan is a director of Fairfax Media and Drury set up Xero, a cloud-based accounting system.
Other group founders include Mark Rushworth, former Vodafone chief marketing officer, technology industry veteran John Humphrey, and entrepreneur Lance Wiggs.
The venture is seeking funding to lay the 13,000-kilometre cable and have it operating by 2013.
The initiative has been welcomed by New Zealand’s Kordia, which has been working on establishing a submarine cable between Auckland and Sydney. Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt said his company had been in discussions with the group and looked forward to working with it. GTB