Australia's third biggest ISP says it will switch up to half its international capacity on the cable when it lights up in 18 months, after signing a 15-year international "foundation customer" agreement.
"This agreement will provide iiNet with long-term supply certainty and significant cost savings," said iiNet MD Michael Malone, checking in from Hawaii.
Company spokesman Greg Bader said the deal should allow the ISP to keep its download pricing in reach of consumers. International bandwidth accounts for around 15 per cent of the company's costs.
Pipe and iiNet say the new cable will jolt "the effective duopoly on international traffic" by the Southern Cross Cable (SXC) and Australia-Japan Cable (AJC), which are dominated by Optus and Telstra. AJC has already announced a plan to increase its capacity by 50 percent to 240Gbps by April.
