The Southern Cross Cable is a trans-

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

network of telecommunications cables commissioned in 2000. The network is operated by the

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-registered company ''Southern Cross Cables Limited''. The network has 28,900 km of

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

and 1,600 km of terrestrial

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

cables, all which operate in a triple-ring configuration. Initially, each cable had a bandwidth capacity of 120 gigabit/s. In April 2008 this capacity was doubled, and was once again upgraded to 860 gigabit/s at the end of 2008. Southern Cross upgraded the existing system to 1.2 Tbit/s in May 2010. After successful trials of 40G technology the first 400G of a planned 800G upgrade has been completed in February 2012, and the remaining 400G was completed in December 2012. An additional 400G was deployed utilizing 100G coherent wavelength technology in July 2013, taking total system capacity to 2.6Tbit/s, with an additional 500Gbit/s to be deployed per segment by Q2 2014, increasing total system capacity to 3.6Tbit/s. About every two or three years, the Southern Cross Company makes an effort to upgrade the cables in some way or another. In June 2014 a further 900Gbps was added. The system currently runs at circa 10Tbs employing a mix of 100Gbs, 200Gbs and 250Gbs wavelengths. Southern Cross offers capacity services from 100M/STM-1 to 100Gbit/s OTU-4, including 1G, 10G and 40G Ethernet Private Line services.

Landing points

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

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 ...

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, Australia * Brookvale,

, NSW, Australia *

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

* North West Point,

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

Whenuapai Whenuapai is a suburb and aerodrome located in northwestern Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the northwestern shore of the Waitematā Harbour, 15 kilometres to the northwest of Auckland's city centre. It is one of t ...

, New Zealand *

Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...

, New Zealand *Kahe Point,

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, United States * Samuel M. Spencer Beach, Hawaiʻi island, Hawaii, United States *

Nedonna Beach, Oregon Nedonna Beach is an unincorporated community in Tillamook County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Nedonna Beach is west of U.S. Route 101 between Rockaway Beach and Nehalem Bay. Undersea cables Nedonna Beach serves as the U.S. terminus of m ...

, United States *

Morro Bay Morro Bay (''Morro'', Spanish for "Hill") is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Located on the Central Coast of California, the city population was 10,757 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,234 at the 2010 census. The town ...

, California, United States

Access points

Equinix Equinix, Inc. is an American multinational company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that specializes in Internet connection and data centers. The company is a leader in global colocation data center market share, with 240 data centers ...

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, Australia (terrestrial connection only) *

Westin Building The Westin Building Exchange is a major telecommunications hub facility located downtown Seattle, Washington. The building was constructed in 1981 as the Westin Building, housing the corporate offices of Westin Hotels, which was then based in Sea ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States (terrestrial connection only) *

CoreSite CoreSite, a subsidiary of American Tower, owns carrier-neutral data centers and provides colocation and peering services to prolific spammers. As of June 24, 2022 the company owned 27 operating data center facilities in 10 markets comprising ...

, San Jose,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States (terrestrial connection only)

Network segments

The network comprises 12 segments (length of segment in brackets):

Submarine

*A. Alexandria-Whenuapai (2280 km) *C. Takapuna-Spencer Beach (8000 km) *D. Spencer Beach-Morro Bay (4135 km) *F. Kahe Point-Hillsboro, Oregon (4540 km) *G1. Suva-Kahe Point (5830 km) *G2. Brookvale-Suva (3540 km) *I. Spencer Beach-Kahe Point (460 km)

Terrestrial

*B. Whenuapai-Takapuna (15 km) *E. Hillsboro, Oregon-Morro Bay (1590 km) **E1. Morro Bay-San Jose (350 km) **E2. San Jose-Hillsboro, Oregon (1600 km) *H. Alexandria-Brookvale (30 km)

Topology

The

network topology Network topology is the arrangement of the elements ( links, nodes, etc.) of a communication network. Network topology can be used to define or describe the arrangement of various types of telecommunication networks, including command and contro ...

is configured to have redundant paths and be

self-healing Self-healing refers to the process of recovery (generally from psychological disturbances, trauma, etc.), motivated by and directed by the patient, guided often only by instinct. Such a process encounters mixed fortunes due to its amateur nature, ...

in case of physical damage. In the

cross section Cross section may refer to: * Cross section (geometry) ** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D *Cross section (geology) * Cross section (electronics) * Radar cross section, measure of detectability * Cross section (physics) **Abs ...

diagram shown: # Insulating high density

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

(17 mm) #

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

tubing (8.3 mm) #

Steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

wires #

Optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

s in water resistant jelly (2.3 mm)

Spying and interception

In 2013 the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' reported that the owners of the Southern Cross cable had asked the United States

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

to pay them for

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

of New Zealand internet activity through the cable. In May 2014,

John Minto John Minto (born ) is a New Zealand political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers listed him as number 89. Tod ...

, vice-president of the New Zealand

Mana Party The Mana Movement, formerly known as the Mana Party, is a former political party in New Zealand. The party was led by Hone Harawira who formed it in April 2011 following his resignation from the Māori Party. Harawira won the by-election in Te T ...

, alleged that the NSA was carrying out mass surveillance on all meta-data and content that went out of New Zealand through the cable. In August 2014,

Russel Norman Russel William Norman (born 2 June 1967) is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. He was a Member of Parliament and co-leader of the Green Party. Norman resigned as an MP in October 2015 to work as Executive Director of Greenpeace Aote ...

, New Zealand

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

co-leader, stated that an interception point was being established on the Southern Cross Cable. Norman said that as the cable is the only point of telecommunications access from New Zealand, this would allow the Government to spy on all phone calls and internet traffic from New Zealand. Norman's claims followed the revelation that an engineer from the NSA had visited New Zealand earlier in the year to discuss how to intercept traffic on the Southern Cross cable. The office of

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...

, New Zealand Prime Minister, denied the claims but admitted that they were negotiating a "cable access programme" with the NSA but refused to clarify what that was or why the NSA was involved.

Damage incidents

There have been few incidents damaging sections of the Southern Cross Cable, despite it traversing the Pacific Ocean's

Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...

and its long length. In late 2007, Southern Cross Cable's operations vice president, Dean Veverka, confirmed that hurricane strength storms and flooding had wiped out the carrier's Oregon cable route and halved its bandwidth capability between Australia/New Zealand/

and United States for a short period of time, albeit customer services were restored via the systems alternate path. A Southern Cross customer (

iiNet iiNet Limited is an Australian internet service provider that sells NBN plans and services on its ULTRA Broadband Cable, FTTB and VDSL2 networks. It was acquired by TPG Telecom in July 2020. iiNet was acquired by TPG in September 2015 for $1 ...

) said that emergency works have been organised to perform a more permanent fix for the damage to the cable. These works were performed on 3 February 2008 at 12 midnight AEST. In March 2008, the then head of Telecom Wholesale, Matt Crockett, mentioned to the

National Business Review The ''National Business Review'' (or ''NBR'') is a New Zealand online news publication aimed at the business sector. It has journalists based in Auckland and Wellington. History The ''NBR'' was founded in 1970 by then-23 year old publisher Hen ...

that there had been a recent undersea earthquake that impacted a shunt on the Southern Cross Cable. However, due to the Cable's redundancy and spare capacity, users experienced no change in access or speed.

Construction and ownership

Construction of the cable began in July 1999, laid by the ship CS ''Vercors'', and the system was in use by customers by November 2000. Additional works and upgrades have since taken place to increase the network's capacity to 480

Gbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...

. In August 2007, SC Cables contracted with

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

to upgrade the cable to 660 Gbit/s by the end of the first quarter 2008 and to 860

Gbit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented ...

/s by the end of 2008, with future upgrade also by Alcatel-Lucent to 1.2 Tbit/s in May 2010. The cable has since been upgraded to over 10Tbs of capacity with a further >10Tbs of capability available on the existing system. The Southern Cross NEXT system will add a further 72Tbs of capability to the network by the end of 2021. The cable was a private investment and there was in estimated $1.5 billion spent on the initial system development. The company is owned by

Spark New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line plain old telephone service, telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet service provider, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digi ...

, SingTel/Optus,

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

(as of December 2019) and

Verizon Business Verizon Business (formerly known as Verizon Enterprise Solutions) is a division of Verizon Communications based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey that provides services and products for Verizon's business and government clients around the world. It ...

. The cables are the result of an agreement between companies Spark Trading,

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore, Si ...

, MFS Globenet, and Southern Cross. The agreement was reached between the companies in 1997 as a response to unexpected growth of the internet that created a need for a submarine cable link connecting the West Coast and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

Southern Cross NEXT

Southern Cross NEXT is a new route addition to the Southern Cross cable eco-system. This new addition began construction in 2019 and is forecast to be completed by 2022. When finished, the new link will be the largest capacity data link between Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles at 16,148 km. The cable is predicted to cost around $300 million and is owned by the Southern Cross group of companies. When finished, Southern Cross NEXT will be able to carry up to 72 terabits per second. The NEXT cable will not be marketed as a stand-alone cable, but rather is designed to be an extension of the original Southern Cross network. The Southern Cross group companies are funding this new segment, through debt and equity arrangements, with the Australian Telecommunication company, Telstra, entering as a new shareholder of the Southern Cross companies. Spark New Zealand announced that Telstra was becoming a 25% stakeholder in the cables in August 2019, at the same press conference they announced that Southern Cross NEXT was fully approved. Southern Cross NEXT entered service in July 2022.

Interconnected cables

A number of Pacific Island cables interconnect with Southern Cross, including the

Tonga Cable System Tonga Cable System is a submarine fiber-optic cable system connecting Tonga with Fiji, where it connects to other international networks. It is long and was activated in 2013. It has cable landing points at Sopu, a suburb of Nukuʻalofa in Tong ...

, the Interchange Cable System to Vanuatu, th
TUI-Samoa cable
linking Samoa to Fiji, and the Gondwana-1 system linking Australia to New Caledonia. The Honotua cable system links French Polynesia to the Southern Cross system in Hawaii.

References

External links

* {{Australia–United States relations Submarine communications cables in the Pacific Ocean Australia–United States relations Australia–New Zealand relations Australia–Fiji relations New Zealand–United States relations Fiji–United States relations Fiji–New Zealand relations 2000 establishments in North America 2000 establishments in Oceania 2000 establishments in Australia