Hawaiki Submarine Cable and TE SubCom announced that the contract for the Hawaiki submarine cable system has come into force and the construction phase has started.
The Hawaiki submarine cable system is a new trans-Pacific cable, which will link Australia and New Zealand to mainland United States, as well as Hawaii, with options to expand to several South Pacific islands. Permitting and initial route planning began in June 2015 and the system will be completed by mid-2018.
The 14,000 km cable system will deliver more than 30 Tbps of capacity via TE SubCom’s C100U+ Submarine Line Terminating Equipment (SLTE) and will allow for optional connectivity to islands along the route utilizing TE SubCom’s optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM) nodes.
Sir Eion Edgar and Remi Galasso, the co-developers of the project, have entered into a long-term partnership and joined forces with entrepreneur Malcolm Dick, to fund and operate the cable system.
“This is a fantastic achievement for the team. We are delighted to move to the implementation phase and pursue our collaboration with TE SubCom,” said Galasso , chief executive officer of Hawaiki. “They have demonstrated a full commitment to the project since the early stages of development and are a true partner of Hawaiki.”
Sir Eion added, “This is the beginning of a new era for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands in terms of international connectivity. We are excited to be at the forefront of this very significant infrastructure investment.”
“The lack of an alternative cable system connecting Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. has long been a concern of mine, so I am delighted to be part of this project, ” said Dick . “Having built telco businesses in both Australia and New Zealand in the past, I am very aware of the need to provide competition by being independent of the incumbent operators. This increased level of competition and capacity should make data caps a thing of the past.”
“The Hawaiki cable system will enhance international capacity for New Zealand and Australia directly to the U.S., providing them with a vital communication advancement that the region has been in need of for quite some time,” said Aaron Stucki , president of TE SubCom. “We are honored to play a key role in a project that will undoubtedly help support the economic development in the region thanks to this state-of-the art infrastructure.”