Vodafone New Zealand signs long term capacity deal with Pacific Fibre

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Vodafone New Zealand and Pacific Fibre today announced that they have signed a multi-million dollar agreement for the supply of international bandwidth on the new Pacific Fibre cable system.

Under the 10-year deal, Vodafone will become Pacific Fibre’s biggest New Zealand customer.

Vodafone CEO Russell Stanners says Pacific Fibre is bringing much needed competition to the international bandwidth market.

“By partnering with an innovative, entrepreneurial business such as Pacific Fibre, we’re helping to break down the digital divide between New Zealand and the rest of the world.

“This deal will allow us to scale our customer offers over the next 10 years delivering the quality and quantity of capacity that our customers need now and into the future.

“This will help us to support New Zealanders’ online ambitions by making sure they can confidently connect to the world and the world can confidently connect to New Zealand.”

Mark Rushworth, Pacific Fibre CEO, says the Vodafone deal is its biggest to date, coming hard on the heels of a contract with REANNZ.

“Foundation customers such as Vodafone and REANNZ have championed the cause of ensuring international bandwidth competition. Their commitment will have a direct impact on bringing faster service and better rates to the region, helping to break the monopoly on capacity pricing into and out of New Zealand”.

Sir Stephen Tindall, Pacific Fibre co-founder, says building Pacific Fibre moves us closer to the US market.

“It’s like parking New Zealand off the West Coast of America, removing the tyranny of distance. It will help foster future innovation and greater economic development for New Zealand.”

Pacific Fibre’s undersea cable system will connect Australia to New Zealand, then to the USA and is scheduled to be launched by early 2014.

ENDS

About Pacific Fibre
Pacific Fibre was founded in 2010 and is intending to construct one of the longest and most technically advanced undersea cable systems. The Pacific Fibre cable will connect Australia and New Zealand to the United States, using leading and proven industry technology to achieve the fastest and most efficient route. Employing 40G technology, Pacific Fibre’s cable will, upon installation, deliver 10.24 Tbt/s of design capacity and, like all modern cable systems, should be capable of significant future increases in design capacity. Pacific Fibre is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.