By Southern Cross

Southern Cross Cable Network has announced a further price reduction and capacity boost for its fully protected undersea cable network that directly connects Australasian broadband users to US internet hubs.  Sales Director Ross Pfeffer said “another price reduction is available immediately and by March next year lit capacity will expand again, this time by more than 50%”.

“The latest initiatives follow closely on the heels of the last price reduction and capacity upgrade that was completed in January of this year. Southern Cross is accelerating its capacity expansion and reducing prices in anticipation of continuing strong demand and in support of Government initiatives for high speed broadband in both Australia and New Zealand”.

Price Reductions

Prices for circuits to the US, from both Australia and New Zealand, have just been reduced by 15% bringing reductions over the last 18 months to more than 50%. “These reductions are made possible by our ongoing implementation of cost effective capacity expansions and that’s great for high speed broadband”.

Pfeffer said “the new Southern Cross price for 5 Gbps of restored capacity represents around US$0.28 per Gigabyte downloaded from the US. This has reduced by 86%, from US$ 1.95 per Gigabyte, in December 2003.

Pfeffer emphasised how the effective price decline for most of its Australian and New Zealand capacity to the US has been greater due to the introduction of Drop Restoration.  Since late 2008 customers using our larger and most popular configurations can safely use all their capacity and lower their cost without experiencing service disruption in the event of a service interruption on one of the two Southern Cross cables.

Pfeffer reinforced the Southern Cross commitment to keep the price of its capacity from New Zealand to the US at no more than its price for equivalent capacity from Australia.  “For more than 10 years Southern Cross has competed in the Australian market and applied its Australian prices to the New Zealand-US market. This has ensured New Zealanders benefit from increasing Australian competition. Clearly, persistent reports noted in the New Zealand media suggesting Southern Cross exploits its sole provider position in the New Zealand market, are, and have always been, untrue”.

Southern Cross has also reduced both its Trans-Tasman and Hawaii–US prices. “Our prices for these smaller markets have just been reduced by 49% and it is our intention to keep prices for these markets aligned to ensure our Trans-Tasman pricing reflects very strong competition in the US-Hawaii Market” said Pfeffer.

Capacity Boost

Pfeffer said “By March next year lit capacity will grow to 620 Gbps per cable, taking total lit capacity to 1.24 Tbps growing by more than 50%. “There can be no doubt that both Australia and New Zealand will continue to have sufficient Southern Cross Capacity to support Government initiatives for high speed broadband adoption in both Australia and New Zealand”

“The capacity expansion will be based on the installation of additional 10Gbps transmission equipment in each of the Southern Cross cable stations”.

“Southern Cross recently concluded a successfully trial of 40 Gbps transmission equipment on its longest undersea segment between Auckland and Hawaii. While we are very encouraged by the additional capacity growth potential that can be implemented with confidence we are sticking with 10 Gbps equipment for now. This is to minimise the total cost of the current expansion while we clarify our investment plans to build a New Southern Cross Network”.

Pfeffer said that “the timing, architecture and footprint of the next Southern Cross Network will be established over the next 18 months and future upgrades to the existing network will be optimised in the context of future decisions on new network construction.