Prof Blaikie, the university deputy vice-chancellor, research and enterprise, said the faster data links were also overcoming the "tyrannies of distance" faced by Otago researchers.
The new links, which include New Zealand, Australia and the United States via the new Hawaiki submarine cable, have recently more than doubled the amount of data per second that can be sent and received by Otago researchers.
"It’s that step up," Prof Blaikie said.
Researchers increasingly needed to consult overseas colleagues over huge data sets in many fields, including for Otago University’s Dunedin Study, and in genetics, he said.
It was significant that Dunedin was further enhancing its Gig City status through the city’s researchers gaining access to even faster data links, he said.
Over the past couple of weeks, the university has increased its network transmission rate from about eight gigabits a second to 18, and further big rises are expected in future.
Otago has access to the submarine cable through the government organisation REANNZ (the Research and Education Advanced Network NZ).
At a recent REANNZ event, hosted by Otago University, REANNZ chief executive Nicole Ferguson hailed the much greater network speed as a "watershed" moment.
Dr Sandhya Ramrakha, of the Dunedin Study, said the Hawaiki cable was now being used to transfer hundreds of encrypted MRI brain scans of study participants, comprising millions of "data slices", to Duke University in the US, for analysis.
The enhanced data links enabled Dunedin researchers from the internationally respected study to work more effectively with scientific colleagues in the United States and elsewhere, she said.