New Zealand company Hawaiki Cable Limited, owner and developer of Hawaiki submarine cable system, has signed a turnkey supply and installation contract with US submarine cable vendor TE SubCom.
The agreement represents a key milestone in Hawaiki’s planned 14,000 km trans-Pacific cable linking Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the US west coast.
Under terms of the multi-million dollar deal, TE SubCom will design and lay an industry-leading coherent fibre optic cable system capable of 10 Tbps per fibre pair on the Australia/New-Zealand to USA trunk, allowing a number of Pacific Islands located next to the cable route to connect to the main trunk.
Undersea cable system elements – known as wet plant – will be based on 100 Gbps wavelength technology and are designed for future upgrades as terminal equipment advances.
The cable system will also include SubCom’s Optical Add Drop Multiplexing (OADM) branching unit technology to connect multiple regional branches to the main cable.
“Our procurement process first started in October 2012 and has progressed according to plan," says Rémi Galasso, CEO, Hawaiki Cable Limited.
"The supply contract with TE SubCom is a major step forward for Hawaiki and adds significant momentum to our project."
TE SubCom will survey the cable route and use collected data to design and manufacture the fibre optic cable system in its New Hampshire factories with the company operating a fleet of cable ships that will lay the cables across the Pacific Ocean.
“We are confident in our choice of supplier," Galasso adds.
"TE SubCom brings both superior technology and operational experience, two key conditions to complete such an ambitious venture.
"Not only will SubCom supply a future-proof system, but the company’s experience with local permitting practices will be critical during system deployment."
The Hawaiki cable system is planned for completion in late 2015, with the agreement coming a week after New Zealand ISP Orcon signed a letter of intent with submarine cable group Hawaiki, confirming its intention to acquire international bandwidth on the ANZ/US segments of the Hawaiki submarine cable system.