There has been a significant change in New Zealand's internet geography.
Vodafone New Zealand announced today it has signed a multi-million dollar agreement for the supply of international bandwidth on the new Pacific Fibre cable system.
Never heard of Pacific Fibre? Don't worry, you're not the only one. Pacific Fibre was founded in 2010 and is intending to construct an advanced undersea cable system to connect Australia and New Zealand to the United States.
Employing 40G Ethernet technology, Pacific Fibre’s cable will, upon installation, deliver 10.24 Terabits per second of design capacity. Like all modern cable systems it should be capable of significant future increases in design capacity.
“It’s like parking New Zealand off the West Coast of America, removing the tyranny of distance," says Sir Stephen Tindall, Pacific Fibre co-founder. "It will help foster future innovation and greater economic development for New Zealand.”
This 10-year deal will make Vodafone Pacific Fibre’s biggest New Zealand customer. The contract comes into effect when the cable system "lights up" in 2014.
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Will Sir Stephen be paying Neil Finn a fee for making use of some of his song lyrics?