Southern Cross Cable Network says it has taken on new Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology that will eventually quadruple its trans-Pacific capacity to 480Gbit/s.
The company said yesterday that the "continued strength" of demand for existing capacity the new cable network had allowed it to adopt the new DWDM technology.
Both Telecom and Clear have deployed DWDM on their national backbone networks recently. The technology multiplies capacity on fibreoptic cable by carrying data at different wavelengths, or colours, of light simultaneously.
Southern Cross said it had made additional capacity sales of $US443 million at its third customer meeting in Hawaii last August, bringing the company's total capacity sales to more than $US1.6 billion.
"When Southern Cross entered into service in November 2000 we expected capacity to be exhausted by end-2002," said Ross Pfeffer, Director, Asia Pacific Market for Southern Cross. With the DWDM technology "we now have the ability to provide for the Internet bandwidth needs of the region for the next four or five years," he said.
Southern Cross will initially apply the higher capacity DWDM technology only to its third fibre pair, which is scheduled to be equipped early in 2002. This will take total network capacity to 240 Gbit/s.
Southern Cross has already committed to equipment for the first and second fibre pairs, but says it will continue to monitor demand so that future decisions can be made on when to upgrade these to DWDM, thus bringing network capacity to 480 Gbit/s.
Southern Cross also announced yesterday that its second Hawaii-mainland US link will enter into service on March 4 this year, completing the 30,500km loop network. This follows the landing of the cable at Morro Bay, California on 30 January and the successful laying of the 9km shore end.