The 14,000km transpacific system is scheduled to go live by June 2018 and will offer the region access to 200Gb of additional capacity.
Commenting on the final cable landing, Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP, explained what the implications of the cable is for Pacific Nations.
“With Hawaiki’s Transpacific Cable Network Pacific Nations will soon have more than enough capacity to comfortably support crucial services such as e-health and e-learning that will have a significant and immediate impact on the many diverse economies and communities throughout the region,” he said.
The project began in 2016 and connects the US with Australia and New Zealand. It runs from Pacific City in Oregon via Kapolei in Hawaii, to Mangawhai Heads in New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, including the branch in American Samoa that landed today. In addition, Hawaiki has added three extra branching units to create future connections in New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga.
Commenting at the time, Remi Galasso Hawaiki CEO, said: “The system includes some branching units as well for the islands – American Samoa is already in, and we expect a few more coming in the next few months. We have included in the system a branching unit for Fiji, another one for Tonga, and another one for the French territory of New Caledonia.”
Back in 2013, TE SubCom came on board as the designer-builder of the 10Tbps per fibre pair cable. Production began in October of 2016, with the first cable landing in Oregon taking place in October 2017. By November the cable had reached its landing station in Sydney and at the top of this year it had appointed XSite Modular, the design-builder of modular cable landing stations, to build a cable landing station in Oahu Hawaii.
American Samoa will act as the cable’s hub for the Polynesian region, with the company indicating that the extra capacity may drive down broadband pricing in the region. There are three fibre pairs along its entire route. Two between Sydney and the US and one between New Zealand and the US. Additionally there are two maintenance vessels that will repair the system over its 25 year lifespan – guaranteed by TE SubCom.
