Australian carrier Telstra plans to invest in a 9,000-kilometer undersea cable to Hawaii to improve telecommunications links between Australia and the US, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report quoted Telstra COO Greg Winn as saying that the cable would allow increased data transmission capability to the US while significantly reducing Australia's reliance on foreign-owned companies in order to compete globally.
Telstra will pay Alcatel Submarine Networks, a specialist in such cabling, will build and lay the cable, and the project is expected to be finished by mid-2008, the report said.
Telstra did not say how much the new cable would cost, the report added.