It's infrastructure that will bring future prosperity to Northland.
That's the reaction to news of a new undersea cable carrying electronic data from across the world to Whangarei, New Zealand.
George Riley of Northland Inc says, “It's like an advert to the nation and the whole world that Northland will have the capacity to do big business.”
The Sinclair Investment Group Limited has taken up the opportunity to bring the $400mil Hawaiki cable here to NZ.
After the Southern Cross cable, this will be the second undersea cable to come to this part of the world. It's a critical piece of infrastructure that will attract more ICT investment to NZ and Northland.
Neville Montefiore of Ultracom says, “It makes working from your home or your office in Whangarei, you could be in an office next door to someone in the United States or London. The connectivity is that quick and that good that we're not really separated by distance so it'll bring global economies closer together.”
It is believed that the cable could be operating by 2017.