iiNet signs up for Hawaiki, SubPartners cables

ISP iiNet will take up to 5 Tbps of submarine capacity on two forthcoming submarine cables.

Trans-Pacific cable contender Hawaiki said it received a letter of intent from iiNet, for capacity on its proposed new link between Australia, New Zealand and the west coast of the United States.

In addition, iiNet said in a financial filing that it will take capacity on a SubPartners cable, which is to be built between Perth and Singapore.

Details of either deal was not revealed.The Hawaiki agreement is expected to be finalised over the next few weeks.

iiNet said it expected the deals to take care of the company's "medium to long term" capacity requirements.

Proposed Hawaiki cable route

Yesterday, Hawaiki said it had received a similar letter of intent from New Zealand provider Voyager, for international bandwidth.

The founder of Voyager, Seeby Woodhouse, told iTnews the deal was for 20 gigabits per second initially, with more to come later on.

“A single sub-sea cable system to the outside world has isolated New Zealand businesses from internet-based revenue opportunities,” Woodhouse said.

“A carrier-neutral cable, like Hawaiki, is a step closer to lower wholesale data rates and faster and cheaper internet for consumers,” he concluded.

Hawaiki recently announced that United States firm TE Subcom would build the cable, spanning some 14,000 kilometres across the Pacific. The cable is scheduled for completion in late 2015, and will have a design capacity of twenty terabits per second.

The cable company is currently in the process of pre-selling capacity on the system, so as to fund the design and build of it.

So far, TPG and the NZ government have committed to buying capacity on Hawaiki, along with iiNet and Voyager.