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Pacific Fibre has signed a definitive agreement with iiNet for the
supply of international capacity on the Pacific Fibre cable system.
Pacific Fibre’s CEO, Mark Rushworth said he was very pleased to
have Australia’s second largest DSL broadband provider on board
as a foundation customer.
“We look forward to supporting iiNet’s ongoing success by
ensuring that they can deliver a faster service and more cost
effective solutions to their customers,” Mr Rushworth said.
iiNet’s CEO, Michael Malone said this would benefit
customers by providing greater capacity on some of the busiest
international routes for Internet traffic.
“As a foundation customer with Pacific Fibre, our customers
will enjoy some of the fastest paths when accessing international
content both now and well into the future” Mr Malone said.
“We have always supported competition in the International cable
space, and the additional capacity and choice Pacific Fibre is
delivering can only be good for both our business and the
industry in general.”
Pacific Fibre’s undersea cable system will connect Australia
to New Zealand, then on to the USA. It is scheduled to be in
commercial service by early 2014.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Mark Rushworth,
Pacific Fibre CEO
mark.rushworth@pacificfibre.net
+64 21 244 0777,
+64 9 2153308
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 be the longest, and most
technically advanced trans-°©‐oceanic cable in the world.
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 10.2 Tb/s of design capacity with
100G upgradability to 12.8Tb/s.
About iiNet:
iiNet is Australia’s second largest DSL Internet Service
Provider (ISP) and the leading challenger in the
telecommunications market. iiNet employs approximately
2000 inquisitive staff across four countries and support over
1.3 million broadband, telephone and Internet
Protocol TV (IPTV) services nationwide.
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PACIFIC FIBRE SELECTS TE SUBCOM AS SUPPLIER FOR HIGH-CAPACITY, TRANS-PACIFIC SUBSEA CABLE SYSTEM
12,750km System Will Set Record for Cross Sectional Capacity, Support Increasing Capacity Demands in Australia and New Zealand
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND and MORRISTOWN, NJ, USA – July 18, 2011 – Pacific Fibre and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company (NYSE: TEL) and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced the signing of a supply contract for the Pacific Fibre undersea cable system. The exceptionally long system will stretch 12,750km and boast a significantly higher cross sectional capacity than any other trans-Pacific cable.
Intended to meet the increasing demand for international bandwidth in Australia and New Zealand, which has been growing at a rate of 55 percent per year, the Pacific Fibre system is planned for completion in 2014. The two-cable system will link Australia and New Zealand via a trans-Tasman cable, while connecting New Zealand to the United States via a trans-Pacific cable. The cable landing points will be in Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; and Los Angeles, California in the United States.
“Demand for international capacity in Australia and New Zealand is sharply increasing and is on track to continue growing for years to come,” said Mark Rushworth, CEO, Pacific Fibre. Mr. Rushworth continued, “The Pacific Fibre cable will not only provide unsurpassed high speed international connectivity to satisfy the growth in broadband demand, but it will also help Australia and New Zealand realize the potential of both countries’ multi-billion dollar broadband initiatives.”
Mike Constable, Director of Business Development, who led the vendor selection and negotiations added, “We look forward to working with TE SubCom, and are confident that the company’s leading 40G and 100G technology, coupled with itsextensive experience and marine capabilities will enable us to successfully implement and deliver this landmark project by the scheduled launch in the first quarter of 2014.”
Upon completion, the Pacific Fibre system will be the highest-capacity-per-fiber- pair system ever built. The cables will each have two fiber pairs, with an ultimate cable design capacity of 12.8 Tbps.
“We are pleased to join forces with Pacific Fibre to construct the longest trans- Pacific system and look forward to seeing the significant benefits that Pacific Fibre’s cable will bring to the region,” said David Coughlan, President of TE SubCom. “The system will be built with our advanced technology and will enable Pacific Fibre to deliver much-needed international connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the United States in the immediate future and to continually support the region’s ever-growing international demand.”
About Pacific Fibre
Pacific Fibre was founded in 2010 and will deliver the longest and most technically advanced undersea cable systems linking Australia, New Zealand and USA. Pacific Fibre is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The Pacific Fibre shareholders include a number of successful entrepreneurs with proven track records, including Sam Morgan, Rod Drury, Sir Stephen Tindall, David Kirk MBE, and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
For more information visit www.pacificfibre.net.
About TE SubCom
TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, is an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services and a leading global supplier for today’s undersea communications requirements. Drawing on its heritage of technical innovation and industry recognized performance, TE SubCom delivers the most reliable, high quality solutions to organizations with undersea communications needs vital to their core mission. The company designs, manufactures and installs systems around the world, and has deployed more than 490,000km of subsea communication cable—or enough to circle the earth more than 12 times at the equator. TE SubCom’s global presence, backed by industry leading research and development laboratories, manufacturing facilities, installation and maintenance ships, depots, and management team work together to implement integrated solutions and network upgrades, with unsurpassed reliability, that support the needs of telecommunications, internet providers, offshore and science customers worldwide.
For more information visit www.SubCom.com.
About TE Connectivity
TE Connectivity is a global, $12.1 billion company that designs and manufactures over 500,000 products that connect and protect the flow of power and data inside the products that touch every aspect of our lives. Our nearly 100,000 employees partner with customers in virtually every industry — from consumer electronics, energy and healthcare, to automotive, aerospace and communication networks — enabling smarter, faster, better technologies to connect products to possibilities. More information on TE Connectivity can be found at http://www.te.com/.
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REANNZ and Pacific Fibre sign foundation customer agreement, based on previously announced terms.
REANNZ and Pacific Fibre announced today that they have signed a $91 million definitive agreement for the supply of international capacity on the new Pacific Fibre cable system. The agreement was approved by the REANNZ board and by shareholding Ministers Hon Bill English and Hon Dr Wayne Mapp.
Donald Clark, outgoing REANNZ CEO, said “We are very happy to have completed the negotiations, marking substantial and rapid progress from the Key Commercial Terms announced in May. The contract sets REANNZ and KAREN up for lasting success, and is a critical part of delivering long-term unconstrained high performance networking for the research, education and innovation communities in New Zealand.”
REANNZ, which was founded by the Crown in 2005, has 129 memberorganisations with connections at 186 sites across New Zealand. The international capacity agreement will secure their ability to fully participate as part of a global network of over 100 research and education networks.
Mark Rushworth, CEO of Pacific Fibre confirmed the importance of the REANNZ commitment to the Pacific Fibre project. “Announcing the REANNZ Key Terms in May gave important momentum to our engagement with our vendors, finance partners and other foundation customers. While today’s news marks another important step, we have also made considerable progress across the board. We want to thank REANNZ and all concerned for conducting a very smooth, fair and rapid tender and negotiation process. It showed how a well-run Government procurement process can support businesses such as ours, and we are offering considerable value to the KAREN community as a result.”
For more information please contact:
Donald Clark
REANNZ CEO donald.clark@reannz.co.nz
+64 4 913 1093
Mark Rushworth
Pacific Fibre CEO mark.rushworth@pacificfibre.net
+64 21 244 0777, +64 9 215 3308
About REANNZ
REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd) is the Crown-owned company that owns and operates the high-speed, unrestricted broadband network for the New Zealand education, research and innovation communities – KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network).
REANNZ acts as an expert purchaser of networks and services. As a not-for-profit membership organisation, we work on behalf of our community for the good of our community, aggregating demand to procure the best and most cost effective networks and services from the market to meet their specialist needs. REANNZ currently connects 129 members at 186 member sites.
www.karen.net.nz.
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. Pacific Fibre’s base case cable will, upon installation, deliver 5.12 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. The Pacific Fibre shareholders include a number of successful entrepreneurs with proven track records, including Sam Morgan, Rod Drury, Sir Stephen Tindall, David Kirk MBE, and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
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Media Release
20 May 2011
REANNZ announces capacity agreement with Pacific Fibre
REANNZ and Pacific Fibre agree key terms for a long-term, ground-breaking international capacity service for the NZ research, education and innovation communities
REANNZ and Pacific Fibre announced today that they have agreed Key Commercial Terms for a substantial contract to supply international capacity on the new Pacific Fibre cable system.
Donald Clark, REANNZ CEO, said “We are excited to secure an anchor tenancy providing long-term capacity for the research, education and innovation communities in New Zealand. Pacific Fibre will provide us with effectively unconstrained capacity to Australia and the USA from mid-2014, allowing us to collaborate with the rest of the world on an equal footing.”
REANNZ is investing its own operational funding, along with NZ$15 million that the Crown granted to support a capacity purchase on a new submarine cable system. This commitment is a result of a recent, open tender process.
Pacific Fibre’s CEO Mark Rushworth said “REANNZ is our first announced customer, and we are delighted to be working with the REANNZ team and the KAREN community. We couldn’t be more aligned with their goals. We are helping REANNZ offer extremely high capacity connections to the community, and that capacity will grow over time. The proposal also more than meets the Crown’s requirement for one new cable — as we will be providing two.”
The deal will see the amount of capacity available to KAREN subscribers rise from today’s 1Gb/s to an initial 40Gb/s and then to 160Gb/s over time. This step change is possible due to the superior economics of the new cable system and through restricting the use of the capacity to the KAREN community.
“At current market rates, the value of the capacity commitment is over NZ$400 million, though obviously we are paying far less than that,” said Donald Clark. “This is a long term commitment, and one that recognises our support for the Crown’s policy goals of increased international cable competition at the right stage in the market process.”
REANNZ and Pacific Fibre are now negotiating a final contract based on the signed Key Commercial Terms. As with all major transactions REANNZ enters into, this process will be subject to the approval of REANNZ shareholders.
Neither party is disclosing additional information about the deal until contracting is completed.
For more information please contact:
Donald Clark
REANNZ CEO
donald.clark@reannz.co.nz
+64 4 913 1093
Mark Rushworth
Pacific Fibre CEO
mark.rushworth@pacificfibre.net
+64 21 244 0777
+64 9 215 3308
About REANNZ
REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand Ltd) is the Crown-owned company that owns and operates the high-speed, unrestricted broadband network for the New Zealand education, research and innovation communities — KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network).
REANNZ acts as an expert purchaser of networks and services. As a not-for-profit membership organisation, we work on behalf of our community for the good of our community, aggregating demand to procure the best and most cost effective networks and services from the market to meet their specialist needs. REANNZ connects over 110 members at more than 150 member sites.
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 5.12 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. The Pacific Fibre shareholders include a number of successful entrepreneurs with proven track records, including Sam Morgan, Rod Drury, Sir Stephen Tindall, David Kirk MBE, and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
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Media Release
27 April 2011.
Pacific Fibre appoints Bank and Investment Banks
Pacific Fibre announces that it has appointed ANZ, Credit Suisse and First NZ Capital to lead fund raising for its new undersea cable system.
The Pacific Fibre undersea cable system will connect Australia to the United States with two fibre optic cables via New Zealand.
“ANZ is delighted to be a part of the development of this critical infrastructure connecting Australia and New Zealand to the United States, and has been a supporter of the project from the early stages”, said David Green, ANZ New Zealand Managing Director, Institutional. The bank’s Executive Director for Institutional Relationships, John Vetter, added “We are very happy to be supporting Pacific Fibre. Our mandate is to raise the debt portion of the US$400 million project on a project finance basis, and as Lead Arranger we intend to provide a significant portion of the required financing while also arranging for other qualified Australasian and international banks to join in this financing.”
Scott St John, CEO of First NZ Capital, is also a strong supporter, saying “The project is crucial to the development of Australasia’s infrastructure, strategic to the region’s ongoing competitiveness, and well-timed for corporates and consumers. We are seeing good support for equity investment into solid long-term infrastructure projects like this. We expect to present this to selected investors shortly.”
Pacific Fibre’s recent tender release has accelerated global interest. CEO Mark Rushworth said “We are pleased to be working closely with top financial firms ANZ, Credit Suisse and First NZ Capital. ANZ have demonstrated their passion for the project and have an impressive balance sheet that will facilitate our fund raising. Credit Suisse’s role is also important. Their global reach and outstanding Australasian team, including local partners First NZ Capital, gives us access to the broadest possible range of equity investors.” Mr. Rushworth continued, “Pacific Fibre’s undersea cable system will unleash the potential of the Australian NBN and New Zealand UFB/RBI projects. It will provide the fastest path to the United States with the most competitive cost basis and help Australia and New Zealand meet the ever-increasing demand for international voice, data and Internet content.”
Ends.
For more information please contact:
Mark Rushworth
Pacific Fibre CEO mark.rushworth@pacificfibre.net +64 21 244 0777, +64 9 2153308
About Pacific Fibre
Pacific Fibre was founded in 2010 and is intending to construct one of the longest and most technically superior undersea cable systems. The Pacific Fibre cable will connect Australia and New Zealand to the United States by utilizing the industry’s most advanced and proven technology, achieving the fastest and most efficient route. By employing 40G technology, Pacific Fibre’s cable will, upon installation, deliver 5.12 Tbt/s of design capacity and, like all modern cable systems, be capable of significant future increases in design capacity. Pacific Fibre is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. The Pacific Fibre shareholders include a number of successful entrepreneurs with proven track records, including Sir Stephen Tindall, and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
About Credit Suisse AG
Credit Suisse AG is one of the world’s leading financial services providers and is part of the Credit Suisse group of companies (referred to here as ‘Credit Suisse’). As an integrated bank, Credit Suisse offers clients its combined expertise in the areas of private banking, investment banking and asset management. Credit Suisse provides advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high‐net‐worth private clients globally, as well as to retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse is headquartered in Zurich and operates in over 50 countries worldwide. The group employs approximately 50,500 people. The registered shares (CSGN) of Credit Suisse’s parent company, Credit Suisse Group AG, are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CS), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit‐suisse.com.
About ANZ
ANZ is one of the largest international banks in the Asia Pacific region with assets of AU$532 billion and a long-term credit rating of AA (Standard & Poor’s). ANZ has one of the Asia Pacific’s broadest integrated debt origination and distribution networks, providing access to more than 500 investor accounts across the region. ANZ currently ranks number one in the Asia-Pacific ex-Japan loan arranger league tables in terms of number of issues (source: Thomson Reuters, 2010), and is also a leading regional ECA debt arranger.
About First NZ Capital
First NZ Capital is a leading full service, wholly New Zealand owned, share broking and investment banking firm. It was formed in 2002 through an employee buyout of Credit Suisse Group’s New Zealand operations, but has been active in the New Zealand market under other names for 50 years. It has a formal strategic alliance with Credit Suisse, a relationship that has existed for 20 years. First NZ Capital has been awarded best NZ investment bank by FinanceAsia for the past two years, and INFINZ sharebroker of the year for the past three years.
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