Alcatel-Lucent has signed a contract with Telstra to lay a new submarine cable network directly linking Sydney to Hawaii.

The new submarine network will serve as an added-value vehicle to support Telstra’s IP network transformation strategy and infrastructure expansion.

Greatly increasing international and regional connectivity, the Sydney-Hawaii network will span nearly 9,000 km and ease the delivery of services to Telstra’s over 5 million customers. With completion scheduled in the second half of 2008, the Sydney-Hawaii submarine network will deliver a capacity of 1.28 Tbit/s.

Businesses and consumers will enjoy telecommuting, video conferencing and mobile video applications. As a result, Telstra will be able to further expand its end-to-end offering that ranges from broadband, IP, mobile and intelligent network services, to voice and data network hubs, call centers and advanced multimedia as well as e-commerce applications.

The Alcatel-Lucent submarine solution will be based on its 1620 Light Manager next-generation DWDM submarine platform, and will also include cable and submarine repeaters, providing direct connectivity to landing stations. A comprehensive suite of professional services, including permitting and project management, engineering, marine operation, and installation testing and commissioning, is part of this turnkey project.

This new project further strengthens the cooperation between Alcatel-Lucent and Telstra for undersea projects, dating back to the early ‘90s. In particular, Alcatel-Lucent has installed several submarine systems for Telstra, such as the Pac Rim and Tasman projects.