Gondwana-1 is a

submarine communications cable A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried tel ...

network connecting

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

brought into service in mid-2008. The cable landing points are: * Narrabeen beach,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales, Australia * Poindimié commune, North Province, New Caledonia *

Mouli Island Mouli Island (sometimes also spelled Mouly Island; also known as Hwakaiö) is one of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island is part of the commune (municipality) ...

, Ouvea commune, Loyalty Islands Province, New Caledonia * Xepenehe, Lifou commune, Loyalty Islands Province, New Caledonia The Australian end of the Cable was terminated in mid November 2007 by the Cable Ship ''Ile de Re'' completing the laying of the cable. The fibre optic cable is laid in the Northern

Protection Zone and comes ashore at Narrabeen beach where the Southern Cross Cable and Australia-Japan Cable are also laid. The system was officially brought into service in September 2008. Gondwana drastically boosted the capacity of the New Caledonia international gateway and decreased the latency to reach Australia and Western Europe, previously handicapped by a 700 ms round trip delay between Australian and Caledonian satellite teleport. It offers the second fibre access point in South Pacific islands after Fijian access to Southern Cross cable, commissioned in 2001. The fibre optic cable is a two-part system, firstly linking

(and then on to the world via the existing Australian fibre optic cables) and a short unrepeated cable from

to the Loyalty Islands, with a landing stations at Poindimie (Main island), Mouly (Ouvea) and Xepenehe (Lifou). The need for the cable was the increasing demand for advanced telecommunications such as broadband and due to the high cost of satellite bandwidth.

References

{{Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean Communications in New Caledonia Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean Telecommunications in Australia Australia–France relations 2008 establishments in Australia 2008 establishments in New Caledonia