Submarine cable venture, Pacific Fibre, has a new bandwidth partner, Vodafone New Zealand, with the signing of a undisclosed multi-million dollar 10-year deal between the two companies.
The telco will supply international bandwidth on the Pacific Fibre cable system, which is set to provide 5.12 terabits per second capacity on a 13,600 kilometre link between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles in early 2014.
Vodafone NZ chief executive, Russell Stanners, said in a statement that the telco planned to break down the "digital divide" between New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world.
"This will allow us to scale our customer offerings over the next 10 years delivering the quality of capacity that our customers need now and into the future," he said.
According to Pacific Fibre chief executive, Mark Rushworth, the Vodafone NZ deal was its biggest to date, following the signing of a contract in May worth $AU11.2 million with Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ), the equivalent to Australia’s AARNet.
"Foundation customers, such as Vodafone NZ and REANNZ, had championed the cause of ensuring international bandwidth competition," Rushworth said.
"Their commitment will have a direct impact on bringing faster service and better rates to the region, helping to break the monopoly on capacity pricing into and out of New Zealand," he said.
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