Southern Cross NEXT Cable System Overview

Southern Cross NEXT is a private fiber-optic submarine cable network connecting Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tokelau, Kiribati, and the United States. Southern Cross NEXT will complement the existing Southern Cross Cable Network to form a robust Southern Cross ecosystem, strengthening the resilience of connectivity on U.S.-South Pacific routes.

Here is the highlight information about the Southern Cross NEXT cable system.

System Design

Southern Cross NEXT consists of four fiber pairs trunk on the U.S.-Australia route, with a design capacity of 18Tbps per fiber pair (and a total design capacity of 72Tbps) using current 100Gbps DWDM technology.

Southern Cross NEXT comprises a U.S.-Australia trunk with six branches.

• The U.S.-Australia Trunk  has a length of 13,483 kilometers and four fiber pairs, two of which are express fiber pairs connecting Sydney, Australia, directly to Hermosa Beach, California.
• The Takapuna Branch connects a branching unit on the U.S.-Australia Trunk and Takapuna, New Zealand, with a length of 1,301 kilometers and two fiber pairs, one of which is an express pair connecting Takapuna, New Zealand, directly to Hermosa Beach, California, and to Sydney, Australia.
• The Suva Branch connects a branching unit on the U.S.-Australia Trunk and Suva, Fiji, with a length of 309 kilometers and one fiber pair.
• The Savu Savu Branch connects a branching unit on the U.S.-Australia Trunk and Savu Savu, Fiji, with a length of 305 kilometers and one fiber pair.
• The Apia Branch connects a branching unit on the trunk and Apia, Samoa, with a length of 310 kilometers and one fiber pair.
• The Nukunonu Branch connects a branching unit on the U.S.-Australia Trunk and Nukunonu, Tokelau, with a length of 53 kilometers and one fiber pair.
• The Kiritimati Branch connects a branching unit on the U.S.-Australia Trunk and Tabwakea, Kiritimati, Kiribati, with a length of 377 kilometers and one fiber pair.

Cable Landing Stations

The Southern Cross NEXT will land at the following cable landing stations:

• Sydney, Australia,  owned by Optus Networks
• Takapuna, New Zealand, owned by Spark New Zealand
• Suva, Fiji, owned by Fiji International Telecommunications Pte Limited
• Savu Savu, Fiji, owned by Government of Fiji
• Apia, Samoa, owned by Samoa Submarine Cable Company Limited
• Nukunonu, Tokelau, owned Telecommunication Tokelau Corporation
• Tabwakea, Kiritimati, Kiribati, owned by Bwebwerikinet Limited
• Hermosa Beach, California, controled by PCLI and owned by RTI Infrastructure, Inc.

Ownership

The Southern Cross NEXT is expected to cost around US$300 million, invested by Southern Cross Cables Limited (SCCL, a Bermuda private limited company), with its sister company Pacific Carriage Limited Inc (PCLI, a Delaware corporation) as landing party in the US, and its subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Pacific Island as landing party in corresponding countries. 

Southern Cross Cable Limited was owned by Spark NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%). In December 2018, Telstra acquired a 25% stake in SCCN and substantial capacity on both the existing network and the new Southern Cross NEXT subsea cable. As a result, SCCL is owned by Spark NZ (38.12%), Singtel EInvestments (30.49%), Telstra (25%) and Verizon Business (6.4%). There is similar ownership for Pacific Carriage Limited Inc, with Singtel's Optus Networks Pty Ltd replacing Singtel EInvestments.

SCCL is a Bermuda private limited company. PCLI is a Delaware corporation. Visit here for the ownership diagram of SCCL and PCLI.

Southern Cross NEXT 's ownership is as follows

• PCLI owns that portion of the wet segment of the U.S.-Australia Trunk in the U.S. territorial sea.
• SCCL owns the wet segment of the U.S.-Australia Trunk beyond the territorial sea of any landing country.
• SCCL Australia Limited owns that portion of the U.S-Australia Trunk in the territorial sea of Australia.
• SCCL New Zealand Limited owns that portion of the Takapuna Branch in the territorial sea of New Zealand.
• SCCL Fiji Limited owns those portions of the Suva and Savu Savu Branches in the territorial sea of Fiji.
• SCCL Pacific Limited owns those portions of the Apia Branch, the Nukunonu Branch, and the Kiritimati Branch in the respective territorial seas of Samoa, Tokelau, and Kiribati.

Supplier

The Southern Cross NEXT cable system is supplied by ASN.

The solution includes ASN’s submarine WSS ROADM units, the latest generation of repeaters and will offer high performance and powering resilience, enabling over 72Tbps transmission capacity.