The PacRimWest, Tasman2 and PacRimEast cables were designed at the very beginning of the internet era when the vast bulk of traffic was voice, fax and video for the television networks, with very limited requirement for data.
The cables fairly quickly reached their capacity of 560 Mbit/s on each of the fibre pairs leading to the requirement for the building of JASURAUS (5 Gbit/s) two years later.
Around a year after Jasuraus became active, it too approached its capacity with Telstra being part of the consortium building SEA-ME-WE 3 (40 Gbit/s).
The Network was designed to have an operational life of 25 years, but became obsolete within only three years with the building of Jasuraus, although after decommissioning in 2005 the cable was cut near the Solomon Islands and relaid to form APNG-2 in 2006 connecting Sydney and Papua New Guinea, saving PNG around 80% of the cost of building a new cable and plant with the equipment from the Guam landing station being moved to PNG.
The Tasman-2 cable (built in 1992) covered the distance of 2,000 km with three fibre pairs, and joined Sydney and Auckland.