Australian telecoms company Optus Communication Pty Ltd, the competitor to Australian incumbent Telstra Corp, is still pushing ahead with plans for a $666m trans-pacific fiber optic cable, even though Telstra has refused to put any funding in. Telstra is backing another pacific cable being built by an AT&T led consortium. Optus is managing the venture to build the southern cross cable which will link Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the US, with a 40 Gigabit per second link. Optus is waiting to get board approval for the cable, and plans for it to come into service by the year 2000. Optus is 51% owned by Cable & Wireless Plc, which is a major undersea cable laying company, with Cable & Wireless Marine Ltd’s undersea cable fleet of vessels.
รก
