Hawaiki Cable is go

Stuff reports:

Hawaiki Cable says it has secured the funding to lay a new internet cable between New Zealand, the United States and Australia.

The cable is believed to have a price tag of about $500 million and may mean faster and cheaper access to overseas websites and online services for broadband users.

The company said in a statement that a contract under which United States firm TE SubCom will build the cable came into force on Thursday and construction would now begin.

This is great news. It should lead to greater competition and more resilience (note Southern Cross is effectively two cables so we are already protected from a single cable failure).

There’s been talk and efforts for almost a decade to get a second cable to the US. Great to see it finally happen. Well done to Hawaiki.