By Telecompaper
January 12, 2018
Fiji International Telecommunications announced plans to invest USD 20 million in the new submarine cable system Southern Cross NEXT. The project spearheaded by Southern Cross Cables will run from Sydney to Los Angeles connecting New Zealand, Fiji (Suva & Savusavu), Samoa, Kiribati and Tokelau.
The total cost of the project is estimated at USD 350 million. The cable is expected to be ready for service by the end of 2019 in preparation for the end of life of the current Southern Cross Cable, which runs from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii to the mainland US and has a commercial life to 2030.
Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa have their cable systems connected to Fintel to access global communications via the Southern Cross Cable. The NEXT cable will be able to carry five times more than the current Southern Cross Cable capacity of 12 Tbps.