A new fast internet link between Australia and New Zealand is being added to Google’s Pacific Connect Initiative. Recently, Southern Cross Cable, which Part Telecom controlled (now Spark), served as New Zealand’s only significant internet link to the outside world.

The transpacific Hawaiki Cable and the Auckland-Sydney Tasman Global Access cable, a joint venture between Spark, Vodafone, and Telstra, have been providing broadband security in recent years. Southern Cross Next is enlisted, and there is currently a fifth major buried fiber optic cable under construction.

Google and Australian telco infrastructure company Vocus have inked contracts to expand the Pacific Connect subsea cable to include an Auckland offshoot. As a result, new submerged fiber connections to Sydney and Melbourne will be made possible. The new transatlantic cable will have a capacity of thirty terabits per second. Some sources indicate that if all goes according to plan, it will be operational in 2026.

The nearest comparable project is the 2017 completion of the 20 terabit per second Tasman Global Access cable, which had a budget of less than $100 million. The new cable will be a component of the larger Pacific Connect Initiative, which started out as a project to improve communication between different Pacific islands and the outside world.

Google has partnered with many telcos to invest. As part of the effort, the internet giant has also partnered with the French Polynesia and Fiji governments through public-private partnerships. The governments of Australia and the United States have also contributed slightly over $100 million in international development financing for a portion of Pacific Connect that will service multiple nations.