Pacnet joins Pacific Fibre to build trans-pacific subsea cable

Pacnet and Pacific Fibre Limited have announced plans to jointly build the Pacific Fibre cable, a city-to-city, low-latency subsea fibre optic cable that will boost connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the US. The total project cost of the new cable is estimated at US$400 million, and comprises of at least two fibre pairs with 64 wavelengths per fibre pair. By using the latest 40 gigabits per second (Gbps) per wavelength technology, the cable is expected to have a capacity of up to 5.12 terabits per second (Tbps), and will be further upgradeable to beyond 12 Tbps with future 100 Gbps per wavelength technology.

The 13,600 km cable will land in Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles, and will also offer the most direct route between these landing points, delivering the lower latency connections that are being demanded by core customers.