The 13,494 km trans-Pacific subsea cable is currently in development and once completed will connect Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles, with branches linking Fiji, Tokelau, and Kiribati.
As shipboard representatives, Pioneer Consulting will supervise cable loading, freighter transfer, laying operations, post-lay inspection and burial, shore-end landings, and among several other project management tasks.
“It is an honour to continue our long-standing relationship with Southern Cross and provide shipboard representation for the laying of its planned NEXT cable system,” said Gavin Tully, managing partner at Pioneer Consulting.
"This is a pivotal project that will enhance the communications capabilities and performance of multiple nations. It is also a complex and detailed engineering and logistical endeavour, and we could not be more excited to take such an active role in the cable-laying process.”
The news expands Pioneer’s existing role as a senior consultant to Southern Cross, which has included duties such as market analysis, survey oversight, route engineering, turn-key procurement and contract review, contractor coordination, Covid-19 risk analysis, project management, manufacturing audits, and quality assurance.
“Planning and building a submarine cable of the scale of the NEXT system is a highly complex project. It takes a team effort. Pioneer Consulting has been our prime consultant on the NEXT project from the very beginning, and we welcome further partnering with their team to see the project through to the end,” added Craige Sloots, director of marketing and sales at Southern Cross Cable Network.
“Pioneer brings a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience, from the market study and technical design, to route surveying, to Covid protocols. Our history with Pioneer makes it easy to feel confident in their ability to manage shipboard representation.”
Due to go live in early 2022, the $350 million Southern Cross NEXT cable will provide 72Tbps of capacity leveraging Alcatel Submarine Networks’ WSS ROADM units and the latest generation of subsea repeaters, all designed to be adaptable to future technology developments.
