New Zealand-based Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd company, announced that the 14,000 km of undersea fiber-optic cable that comprise the Hawaiki transpacific cable system are in the final stages of being loaded aboard TE SubCom’s cable laying vessels ‘CS Global Sentinel’and‘CS Responder’. Installation of the system will commence in early October 2017.
“The coming months will see the realization of our vision for Hawaiki, a system that will impact the capabilities and economies of hundreds of Pacific communities,” said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. “Considering the scope of the project, the progress to date has been staggering. It is a thrill to reach the installation phase and know that we will soon be ready to light the system and deliver much needed capacity to the region.”
Manufacturing has concluded at SubCom’s Newington, New Hampshire, U.S. facility, including more than 14,000 km of cable for Hawaiki and more than 170 completed repeaters. Cable has been fully loaded onto the ‘CS Global Sentinel’, and the ‘CS Responder’load is near completion. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the cable landing in Pacific City, Oregon and Sydney, Australia has been completed.
All installation permits for Australia, New Zealand and Oregon are already in hand, and continue to progress as expected in Hawaii. In Sydney, the construction of the land duct route is complete, the installation of the terminal equipment has started and the pulling of the land cable is scheduled to begin shortly. In New Zealand, the construction of the land duct route is complete and the construction of a new cable station is underway. The system is on schedule for completion by mid-2018.
Hawaiki will link Australia and New Zealand to the mainland United States, as well as Hawaii and American Samoa, with options to expand to additional South Pacific islands. Hawaiki will be the highest cross-sectional capacity link between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand. The carrier-neutral cable system was co-developed by New Zealand-based entrepreneurs Sir Eion Edgar, Malcolm Dick and Remi Galasso.
