If the idea of 7000 odd kilometres of cable being laid on the ocean floor kinda gets you hot and steamy, this video has a heap of cable porn for you to watch and enjoy. Not to mention a soundtrack that could replace the global need for coffee…

Update: It’s starting!
11:02: Oh God, Andrew O’Keefe is MC. Bad jokes about the weather abound…
11:05: Oh frak! Lost my camera…
11:06: Found it. OK, 6900 km of cable connecting Guam to Sydney.
11:07 Bevan Slattery, CEO of Pipe Networks taking the stage.
11:07: iiNet put the idea forward to Pipe back in 2006. Bevan laughed at the idea. Then after another contact had conversation lamenting difficulty getting content to Australia from OS.
11:08: Tagline: “Not about capacity, it’s about competition.”
11:10: PPC-1 (pipe pacific cable Number 1)
11:11: Had to endure FUD campaigns from operators, plus GFC. Needed $80 million for the job, but had a lot of trouble getting it.
11:12: Developed a plan to move forward without the banks while facing insolvency — crap, this whole thing could have gone sour really quickly.
11:14: Will you get bigger quotas? Yes. Cheaper plans? Yes. In fact you’re already getting them.
11:15: Added bonus: redundancy in cables to Asia. Awesome.
11:16: A video now. Sydney harbour… Oh wait, this thing’s in the press kit. I’ll post it when I’m not just using a mobile internet key to connect to the net. It’s got a pretty full-on soundtrack for a video about pipes…
11:18: There’s something weirdly sexual about a huge metal pipe moving through a ship…
11:20: Clip’s done, O’Keefe’s back on stage.
11:22: David Coughlan, CEO of Tyco Telecommunications is on stage. They’re the guys that laid the cable.
11:24: History of Pipe/Tyco partnership being discussed. Tyco wondered how Pipe would manage to pay for something 4x their annual revenue.
11:25: The contract between Tyco and Pipe were signed only 20 months ago. That’s just crazy!
11:27: Now Bevan’s back on stage. Talking about the cable. 1.92TB system.
11:28: Maximum of $US30 million debt for Pipe International — the pipe itself is debt free.
11:29: Thanking partners: Michael Micket from iiNet, John Lindsay from Internode, Peter Loko from Telikom PNG plus a “customer who can’t be named” (who’s probably Google).
11:32: And a lot more people from Tyco, Tata, Pipe…they’re all up on stage.
11:35: Video from Guam — PPC-1 is active!
11:36: To showcase the pipe in action, there are two 103-inch Plasmas streaming HD content from Guam. I can tell you it looks awesome!
11:37: All done! I’ll pop some stats online a little later today. This is a huge day for Aussie broadband.

*The cable spans over 6,900km between Guam and Collaroy
*There are 78 Tyco Telecom repeaters on the system, spaced 92km apart (on average)
*The pipe has a 1.92TB capacity
*Pipe networks guarantees 99.999% uptime
*Every metre of the cable had to be manually placed into the ships that were laying it.
*Internode were the first customer to trial the connection prior to today’s launch