Pacific Fibre has folded after failing to raise enough funds for a planned 13,000km cable connecting California with Australia and New Zealand for NZ$400m (US$324m), according to a company statement.
Pacific Fibre launched in March 2010 specifically to…
Pacific Fibre has folded after failing to raise enough funds for a planned 13,000km cable connecting California with Australia and New Zealand for NZ$400m (US$324m), according to a company statement.
Pacific Fibre launched in March 2010 specifically to build the fibre-optic cable, but struggled to attract investment.
“The global investment market is undoubtedly difficult at the moment but we knew this was always going to be hard, regardless of our timing,” said chairman Sam Morgan.
“Despite getting some good investor support we have not been able to find the level of investment required in New Zealand initially and more broadly offshore,” he said.
Pacific Fibre says its cable would have significantly reduced the price of international bandwidth for consumers.
In a parting shot, co-founder and director Rod Drury criticised the New Zealand government’s broadband strategy: “We still cannot see how the government’s investment in UFB (ultra fast broadband) makes sense until the price of international bandwidth is greatly reduced.”
He added that high prices were a “market failure”, not a technical one.