Hawaiki promises Pacific cable link

Hawaiki Cable has publicly emerged as the latest player promising to build a trans-Pacific fibre optic cable after its plans were aired at last month's Polynesian Leaders' Group meeting.

The company wants to build a two fibre pairs submarine cable system spanning the Pacific with an 8 terabit per second capacity, according to its website. The cable will link Auckland, Sydney and Hawaii, with connections on Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Wallis, Samoa and American Samoa.

"Our goal is to significantly contribute to the development of New Zealand and Pacific Islands' business by providing future-proof capacity and connectivity," according to the company's website.

The project is headed by Remi Galasso, a former Alcatel Lucent executive who founded Noumea-based telecommunications infrastructure company Intelia in 2005. Intelia designs and implements wire and wireless networks and backhaul, and can design and build IT systems.

The new entrant enters the market after Pacific Fibre shut up shop when it failed to attract the $400 million it needed to fund the project, leaving Southern Cross Cable the only international cable network operating in New Zealand.

Last month, the Cook Islands News reported Hawaiki was looking to complete the project by the end of 2014 at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, contingent on getting all countries on board by the end of this year. The company is also proposing links to the Cook Islands and Tahiti, the paper reported.

(By Paul McBeth - BusinessDesk)