With the ready for service date (RFS) scheduled on or before Q1 2022, Pioneer Consulting’s expert team will provide a full suite of project management and engineering support related to the construction and delivery for Southern Cross’ NEXT system that will connect Australia, New Zealand and California, USA—including spurs to Fiji, Tokelau, and Kiribati. Southern Cross NEXT will be the largest capacity link providing data-center connectivity between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles and the planned 16,148km system will be the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to the USA, as well as provide trunks and diversity for the intermediate locations.
Team leader and Pioneer Consulting’s Managing Partner Keith Schofield stated, “Since Pioneer was brought in at the conception of NEXT, our global team will continue to work with Southern Cross to see the vision become a reality. From the planning phases, Pioneer Consulting has produced detailed market analysis as well as consulted on the overall network design. Our firm also assisted with procurement, survey, permitting, and contracting activities—hence we are very familiar with the immense project and we very much look forward to our continued involvement.”
Mr. Laurie Miller, President and CEO of Southern Cross further noted: “The addition of the Southern Cross NEXT route will provide a connectivity to our existing and future customers with increased resiliency, redundancy and capacity between the regions, and we are pleased to once again have Pioneer Consulting on board to assist with our endeavor. Pioneer’s expertise has been instrumental in complimenting the experience in the Southern Cross team in the design and delivery of the Southern Cross NEXT project to date, and we look forward to continuing the teamwork for the successful implementation of this significant project.”
Pioneer Consulting will also support the marine engineering, manufacturing and assembly, factory acceptance, installation, testing and commissioning for both the subsea and terrestrial components of the project through to the system being ready for service.
