Australian ISP group TPG Telecom has arranged to buy capacity over the Australia-US and Australia-NZ segments of the upcoming Hawaiki subsea cable system.
TPG has announced a “multi-million dollar deal” to lease capacity from New Zealand cable start-up Hawaiki Cable.
The 14,000km is designed to run between Sydney and the US west coast via Hawaii, with branches to New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Samoa, American Samoa, Norfolk and Wallis Island.
It will have an initial capacity of up to 3Tbps using 100G technology, and be upgradeable to 400G in the future. The cable is scheduled for completion in late 2015.
TPG CFO Stephen Banfield said that while the financial terms of the capacity deal are confidential, the company expects capital expenditure in relation to the contract of between $10 million and $20 million per annum over the next three financial years.
TPG is Australia's fourth largest ISP company. The company has experienced solid growth in recent years through a combinations of acquisitions and organic gains.
The ISP also offers MVNO services via the Optus network, and acquired mobile broadband spectrum during May's Digital Dividend auction, leading to speculation that it has MNO ambitions.