MILPITAS, Calif., Dec.

By PULLAR-STRECKER Tom THE consortium that owns the Southern Cross cable says a rival trans-Tasman communications cable backed by the Government will be chasing a slice of a market worth less than $20 million a year, and it might consider a legally binding guarantee making the extra competition pointless.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9ba917/australia_teleco) has announced the addition of the "Australia - Telecommunications Infrastructure International Networks" report to their offering.

AT&T has joined a consortium to build a submarine cable network, named Trans-Pacific Express, which links Japan, mainland China, Korea, Taiwan and the US. Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) is a new, high bandwidth fiber-optic submarine cable currently being built by a consortium that now includes AT&T.

By GATES, Charlie New Zealand internet access is safe, despite an incident last week when 75 million web surfers in India and the Middle East lost access after a seabed cable broke.