Dotcom wants to revive project to lay Internet cable across the Pacific

Shawn Knight

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MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom is hoping to revive a two year old undersea broadband cable project that stalled out earlier this year due to insufficient funding. Pacific Fibre intended to lay 6,500 miles worth of cable between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Dotcom recently took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the project. It was here that he said it is important to reboot the project and that he will make it happen. He also reached out to Pacific Fibre chairman Sam Morgan and director Rod Drury, suggesting the three get together to discuss it further.

kim dotcom zealand

The entrepreneur has said that New Zealand ISPs would have free access to the cable. This would drastically reduce how much residents pay for their Internet connection, perhaps by as much as 80 percent. Speeds would be three to five times faster and there would be no transfer limits.

It seems that most in the media, however, believe Dotcom’s ambitions are little more than a pipe dream at this point. It would reportedly cost in the neighborhood of $330 million to complete the project. Dotcom would use his new file sharing site Mega to help fund the project in addition to other investors and perhaps even money raised from suing authorities for closing down MegaUpload.

The United States would also have to approve the cable on their end. Given Dotcom’s pending extradition hearing scheduled for March 2013 and the fact that the cable would feed into Los Angeles (a hotbed for Hollywood film production), that’s unlike to ever happen.

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Firstly the United States doesn't have to "allow" the pipe, and even if it did, it would go into Mexico or Canada and have the same effect.

Secondly $330 million is chump change to IT companies, and not a lot of money. I can think of any number of companies who'd be willing to pay for the whole project simply to own advertising rights on the pipeline.
 
IDK about this one. It seems to be an altruistic move on Dotcoms part. Something completly out of character for this guy. He must either be suffering from damn near dial up speeds or its secretly a burger pipeline to his house! This guy is 15 shades of shady. If he is doing this you can bet there is something in it for him.
 
Firstly the United States doesn't have to "allow" the pipe, and even if it did, it would go into Mexico or Canada and have the same effect.

Secondly $330 million is chump change to IT companies, and not a lot of money. I can think of any number of companies who'd be willing to pay for the whole project simply to own advertising rights on the pipeline.

really? nothing huh? you mean $ as in USD, not 330 million turkish lira, right? I know who you voted for today. If any number of companies would pay for this, we'd have it already. And it wouldn't have the same effect going through Mexico or Canada. The movies are made in LA, and would be leaked from LA. Kinda defeats the purpose of fiber if you have to send your movies slowly somewhere else before they can head over to his servers.

There are lots of risks with undersea pipelines. Did you know sharks are drawn to the electromagnetic fields they throw off and chew through them? http://yarchive.net/phone/oceanic_cable.html Not to mention earthquakes, especially around CA.
 
Really hoping this works!

Internet speeds/prices/datacaps in New Zealand are shocking! When I lived in the UK I paid NZ$5 per month for unlimited capped 20mbps ADSL2. In NZ I have to pay NZ$100 per month for 6mbps ADSL with a 50Gb cap, and thats classed as a heavy user!!! :(
 
Mike,
I assume Dotcom is thinking fiber optics, which do not emit electromagnetic fields. I don't know why sharks like these cables, but unless there is copper wire with current going through it, there is no magnetic field there.

Firstly the United States doesn't have to "allow" the pipe, and even if it did, it would go into Mexico or Canada and have the same effect.

Secondly $330 million is chump change to IT companies, and not a lot of money. I can think of any number of companies who'd be willing to pay for the whole project simply to own advertising rights on the pipeline.

really? nothing huh? you mean $ as in USD, not 330 million turkish lira, right? I know who you voted for today. If any number of companies would pay for this, we'd have it already. And it wouldn't have the same effect going through Mexico or Canada. The movies are made in LA, and would be leaked from LA. Kinda defeats the purpose of fiber if you have to send your movies slowly somewhere else before they can head over to his servers.

There are lots of risks with undersea pipelines. Did you know sharks are drawn to the electromagnetic fields they throw off and chew through them? http://yarchive.net/phone/oceanic_cable.html Not to mention earthquakes, especially around CA.
 
You do know that fiber optics are signals of light, not electricity, right? They don't have electromagnetic fields anymore than the trees in your backyard do... go try to stick a refrigerator magnet on one of them. I bet the pirates would enjoy having a 6,500 mile wifi hotspot to check their Facebook though... Aaargh.
 
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