By Tom Pullar-Strecker, Stuff
Spark and Vodafone appear set to confirm their investment in a new submarine cable linking New Zealand and Australia on Thursday.
The companies will hold a media conference addressing New Zealand's “connected future”, though Vodafone spokesman Brad Pogson would not confirm it was the long-awaited cable announcement.
Spark first announced its plan to lay the cable in partnership with Vodafone and Telstra in February last year, estimating it would cost about US$60 million ($77 million). But there have been rumours Telstra had cold feet.
After Spark's annual meeting last month, Spark chief executive Simon Moutter said he was determined to proceed with the investment to provide the “resilience and security New Zealand will need to enable ‘a cloud future' for big business customers in particular” and that work on the cable should start very soon.