Rémi Galasso’s Datagrid and Kiwi telco Chorus have announced plans for a trans-Tasman subsea cable, named the Tasman Ring Network.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the pair to build the cable was signed this week, according to recent Chorus company filings.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Galasso said the 6,000km cable will connect Auckland, New Plymouth, Greymouth, and Invercargill in New Zealand to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia.
The cable has a design capacity of up to 540 Tbps and will provide diverse connectivity out of the South Island of New Zealand. Subject to demand, the subsea system is expected to be ready for service in late 2027.
In January this year, Galasso announced plans for the Te Waipounamu submarine cable, connecting Invercargill in New Zealand to Melbourne and Sydney in New Zealand. The Tasman Ring project is an extension of the Te Waipounamu cable, which forms the southern segment of the Tasman Ring.
“We believe the Tasman Ring is the right vision and the right design to make New Zealand an attractive location for hyperscale data centers looking for abundant renewable electricity sources,” said Perrine Dhalluin, CEO at Datagrid.
Mike Shirley, Chorus’ executive general manager of infrastructure, added: “This is a really exciting opportunity. Chorus and Datagrid see a need for integrated international and domestic connectivity solutions into the future. The Tasman Ring would hugely improve data center connectivity in New Zealand and across the Tasman.”
The cable will land at Datagrid’s planned 240MW data center campus in Makarewa, Southland, in Invercargill. Plans for the data center were first announced in December 2020.
Datagrid was founded by Hawaiki cable founder Galasso and Callplus founder Malcolm Dick. The company is now headed up by CEO Perrine Dhalluin, who was appointed in late 2023.
Connectivity out of New Zealand has historically been concentrated in the North Island, with the Hawaiki, SCCN, and NEXT cables all landing in the North.
The Hawaiki Nui cable from BW Digital is set to connect Invercargill to New Zealand’s north island, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the US. It is set to go live in 2026.
BW Digital, which acquired the original Hawaiki cable in 2021, announced in a LinkedIn post earlier this week that it has signed the supplier contract for the Sydney-Darwin segment of the new with Alcatel Submarine Networks.
The cable system is set to follow a new route northeast of Australia, through the Torres Strait. The cable has a design capacity of more than 240Tbps and will connect Island nations such as the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Timor Leste.
