Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has signed a contract with a consortium composed of Spark New Zealand, Telstra and Vodafone to deploy the Tasman Global Access (TGA) undersea cable system that will connect New Zealand to Australia on a direct 2,300 km link.

Designed with a capacity of at least 20 Terabits per second (Tbit/s), the new TGA system will offer low-latency connectivity across the Tasman Sea, between Raglan, in New Zealand, and Narrabeen, in Australia.  The system will provide an alternative route for trans-Tasman traffic, significantly improving New Zealand's international connectivity, as well as strengthening links into fast-growing Asian markets.

Simon Moutter, Managing Director of Spark New Zealand and Russell Stanners, CEO of Vodafone New Zealand, said: “TGA will further strengthen reliable ultra-broadband connectivity in Australasia for a growing range of applications, including cloud computing, data centre applications, content delivery, government and enterprise services.  Additionally, it will enable a significant improvement in the robustness of New Zealand’s international connectivity with the rest of the world, by delivering this high capacity alternative route.”

Philippe Dumont, President of Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks said: “This project confirms the continued growth of connectivity needs in Australasia and in the Asia region overall.  We are pleased to provide our 100G coherent technology to help the consortium build the Tasman Global Access cable that will significantly improve the bandwidth and reliability for traffic to and from New Zealand.”