Vodafone keen on $900m submarine cable

Vodafone has given the millionaire backers behind a plan to build a second international submarine communications cable a nod of approval.

Vodafone New Zealand chief executive Russell Stanners said he had been in talks with the Pacific Fibre group, which aimed to break the near monopoly of the Telecom half-owned Southern Cross Cable over international internet traffic.

Pacific hopes to lay a $900 million cable between New Zealand, Australia and the United States by 2013.

"Vodafone has a big appetite for bandwidth – we are very keen to be customers if they deliver an infrastructure we can use," Mr Stanners said.

Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and Xero founder Rod Drury are behind the venture.

Mr Drury said the cable was needed to prevent the country becoming a technological backwater.

- © Fairfax NZ News