A number of fibre-optic cables were damaged in Sydney on Wednesday, which caused a great number of Kiwis broadband users struggle to access international websites. The cause of the damage was a boring machine, close to a major Sydney data centre.
Vocus's fibre-optic cables were affected and 196,000 New Zealand customers were affected by the cut. It is reported that the customers of other companies in New Zealand were also impacted.
Anthony Briscoe, the chief executive at Southern Cross Cable said the damage did not occur on the infrastructure it owned, and that internet providers that had bought fully-redundant circuits on its international cable would not have experienced issues. Southern Cross' cable network links New Zealand and Australia to the United States.
Vocus reported that the cut happened in Sydney, at about 4pm New Zealand time, on Wednesday. Vocus NZ chief executive Mark Callander said: "at no time did the internet fail for our New Zealand customers". During the cut, customers' internet traffic was routed via the US and Asia as was designed for in these rare situations.
Quentin Reade, the head of consumer brand and communications at Vocus said: "Everything is now operating as normal." Work to fix the cut fibre was finished at 2am Thursday.
