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Australian telco Vocus has agreed with cable owner Google to connect the existing route to Aukland, New Zealand
This week, Australian telco Vocus has announced that it has struck a new deal with Google that will see the Honomoana cable extended to New Zealand.
The transpacific Honomoana cable was first announced in October last year, connecting the US to Australia via French Polynesia. It is part of Google’s South Pacific Connect initiative, which includes a second cable system, Tabua, which connects to US and Australia to Fiji.
Through these two complementary cable systems, Google aims to crate a ring between Australia, Fiji, and Frech Polynesia, supporting the digital traffic throughout the entire south Pacific regio.
“This agreement with Google will massively expand Vocus’ digital infrastructure footprint. When combined with our existing cables, our network will span from South-East Asia to the US via multiple diverse landings in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific,” said Vocus CEO Ellie Sweeney.
“Pacific Connect will significantly uplift trans-Tasman data capacity with the new Auckland landing, and brilliantly complements our existing network both in Australia and internationally – allowing Vocus to provide our customers with unprecedented network capacity and redundancy across three continents,” she said.
“The new Sydney to Melbourne route will also allow Vocus to provide our customers with another redundant route on Australia’s east coast, complementing our existing coastal and inland terrestrial routes that have recently been upgraded to offer 400Gbps services.”
The Honomoana cable itself is slated for completion in 2026.
Google has been very active recently in the submarine cable space, announcing last month that they would invest $1 billion in two new cable systems linking the US to Japan.
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