The company behind a $US400 million high-speed trans-Pacific internet cable has found its first customer.
Pacific Fibre hopes to have the network between Australia, New Zealand and the United States operating by the middle of 2014.
Its new anchor tenant is the Research & Education Advanced Network which owns and operates a super-fast internet link connecting the universities and Crown Research Institutes.
REAN is also Crown-owned. It will invest its own operational funding and $15 million.
The deal will boost the network's capacity from 1 gigabyte per second, to 40 gigabytes initially, growing to 160 gigabytes over time.
The Research and Education Advanced Network and Pacific Fibre are still negotiating a final contract, which will require approval by REANNZ's shareholders.
Backers of Pacific Fibre include TradeMe creator Sam Morgan, Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall, and Rod Drury of Xero.
