Australians have a talent for naming their icons. We have the “Big Pineapple” on the Sunshine Coast, the “Big Banana” at Coffs Harbour and the “Big Guitar” at Tamworth.

Now we have a very big state-of-the-art fibre optic cable - stretching 9,000 kilometres across the bottom of the ocean between Sydney and Hawaii - which is connecting Australia with the U.S and Telstra has launched a competition to name it.

There’s no prize for calling it the “Big Cable” but anything a bit more creative will be in the running to win a pre-paid mobile phone and a $100 pre-paid wireless broadband kit.

Mr Michael Rocca, Group Managing Director Telstra Networks and Services, managed the cable’s construction over the past year and a half and said Australians have already started to benefit from the high-speed cable which is only 17 millimetres wide and capable of carrying 1.28 Terabits* of traffic per second from Australia to the US - the equivalent of 160,000 simultaneous high definition television channels.

“This is another example of Telstra investing to ensure Australians can enjoy the benefits high-speed broadband technology offers including healthcare, education and business opportunities,” Mr Rocca said.

Ms Kate McKenzie, Group Managing Director Telstra Wholesale, said this new technology, which started transferring data during late September, will ensure all of Telstra’s customers have a reliable and robust connection with the rest of the world.

Mr David Thodey, Group Managing Director Telstra Enterprise and Government, said that with more than 65 per cent of all internet content accessed in Australia coming from the US:

“We are providing capacity to meet all of our customers needs which include our enterprise, government, retail and global customers’ needs now and into the future”.

Telstra’s Name the Cable competition starts on Tuesday, 7 October and runs for two weeks. Entry forms will be available on our website: Name the cable competition.

A shortlist of 20 entries will win runner-up prizes and be in the running to win a pre-paid mobile phone and a $100 pre-paid wireless broadband kit. The winner and cable name will be notified and announced during the week of 20 October on nowwearetalking.com.au.

Learn more about Telstra’s “Big Cable”

The cable

• This is the first international cable to be laid out of Australia in seven years and at 9,120 kilometres, the Sydney-Hawaii cable will be the longest direct single span cable out of Australia.
• The cable network has been laid out in accordance with specific environmental standards and the European Maritime Safety Agency inspection process.
• The first commercial cable in the world was built in August 1850 by Anglo-French Telegraph Company across the English Channel. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without any other protection.
• The oceans cover more than seventy per cent of the earth – as we share voice, data and internet communications between continents the cable needs to travel across these oceans.

The demand

• Around 65 per cent of all internet content accessed in Australia comes from the US.
• Telstra forecasts that the amount of IP traffic will approximately double every two years.

The investment

• Businesses and consumers who use data-rich services such as telecommuting, video-conferencing and mobile video applications will have access to a more seamless and reliable service through this increased network capacity.
• The Sydney-Hawaii cable will be available to both Telstra retail and wholesale customers in Australia and off-shore.

* A terabit is 1000 gigabits