ASN begins construction of $350m Southern Cross NEXT cable

Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Southern Cross Cable Ltd have announced the construction of the $350 million Southern Cross NEXT cable which will be 13,700km in length. The cable system is expected to deliver 72 TBps of capacity in addition to the current 20 TBps for the existing systems. The landing points for the cable will be Australia, Samoa, Kiribati, the USA, Tokelau, Fiji, and New Zealand. Spark New Zealand, Singtel Optus, Verizon, and Telstra are collaborating for the buildout of the cable system.