AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Five years of planning and building came to fruition at 1pm today as Telecom’s first commercial traffic started flowing across the $2.2 billion submarine Southern Cross Cable network.Much of Telecom’s international data and Internet traffic will start to be migrated across from existing satellite links to the Southern Cross Cable, which link New Zealand to the United States and Australia. In addition to carrying some existing traffic, the Southern Cross cable will also cater for future data and Internet traffic growth.

Group General Manager, Network, David Bedford said the first traffic flows on Southern Cross were a major milestone for Telecom.“Telecom staff managing the Southern Cross Network Operations Centre in Auckland will progressively begin to light up customers’ circuits and will witness the first commercial transmission of traffic to the United States and Australia at the speed of light,” Mr Bedford said.

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