MEDIA RELEASE - A team of specialist submarine cable experts have successfully laid the first section of the Tasman Global Access (TGA) undersea cable in Raglan.
The cable laying activities at Ngarunui Beach were completed on Friday 8 April.
Telecommunications companies Spark, Vodafone and Telstra are investing approximately USD $70 million to build the TGA cable, which will significantly improve New Zealand’s international broadband connectivity.
Vodafone’s Wholesale Director, Steve Rieger said the 25 strong beach landing project team took one week to bury the three kilometre stretch of heavily armoured cable, which weighs roughly 22 tonnes.
“The team began by pulling the cable ashore from the specialised ship, the MV Tranquil Image. They then stripped a section of the steel armour back to uncover the four fibres inside, which are connected to the terminal station in Raglan and will be connected to Vodafone’s AquaLink cable. This cable already lands at the edge of Ngarunui Beach and will be used to carry TGA traffic to two locations in Auckland – one on the Spark network, and the other on Vodafone’s.
“The team then excavated roughly 5000 square metres of sand and hard clay to bury the cable to a depth of about three metres beneath the sand. During this process, an articulated protective pipe weighing more than 16 kilograms per metre was applied to the cable for extra protection. The remaining stretch of cable was buried to a depth of roughly one metre out into the ocean,” said Steve.
Once it is in service the benefits of the TGA cable will include strengthened links into fast-growing Asian markets, important redundancy and resiliency, and better connection with the five main international cable systems currently serving Australia.
Spark’s General Manager Wholesale and International, Lindsay Cowley said, “During the course of the Raglan shore-end cable lay experts from as far away as Greece worked alongside excavators and builders from the local Raglan community. Together they have successfully completed the first phase of this important engineering project.
“The TGA project team collaborated with local Iwi, council and other groups to ensure this activity had no lasting impact on the environment, and we wish to once again thank the Raglan community for their support and understanding throughout the duration of the works,” said Lindsay.
The work in Raglan marks a significant milestone on the journey to having the TGA cable ready to start carrying data across the Tasman towards the end of 2016.
The TGA cable project is currently on track to be completed, tested and ready for service by the end of 2016. The 2,300km length of cable is comprised of two fibre pairs, and will have a total capacity of 20 terabits per second.
Further TGA cable project details are as follows:
Constructor: Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks (ASN)
Project term: The Raglan shore end works are now complete. The start date for stage two – the cable lay across the Tasman to Narrabeen Beach in Australia, will follow on through a suitable marine window and will also be subject to weather conditions and ASN’s scheduling of marine operations.
