Hawaiki, which is trying to raise $US350 million to lay fibre between Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the mainland US, says it has contracted US company TE Subcom to supply and install its proposed 14,000km cable.
It's another promising step for the company, which earlier said it has signed anchor contracts with Australia's TPG and New Zealand's Orcon, as well as a memorandum of understanding with the Northland Regional Council to land the cable (the MoU also has a role for the Northland local authority in raising funds).
And again, it's retracing Pacific Fibre's footsteps.
Pacific Fibre also had the New Jersey-based TE Subcom signed up to build its proposed Sydney-Auckland-LA cable (ultimately abandoned after less than half the required $NZ400 million was raised, despite anchor customer contracts from Vodafone, CallPlus, Australia's iiNet and Crown company Reannz).
Still, those who want to see competition for the 50% Telecom-owned Southern Cross Cable will have their fingers crossed.
Last week, the government put $15 million in the pot for a new Australia-NZ-US cable in the form of an anchor customer bandwidth contract from Crown company Reannz.ICT Minister Amy says Hawaiki is eligible to apply for the Reannz contract (while Hawaiiki's CEO Remi Glasso is based in Noumea, a spokesman for the company tells NBR the company is registered in NZ).
China's Huawei is generally considered the most keenly priced submarine cable supplier, but is in a tricky political spot across the Tasman where the outgoing Gillard-Rudd government banned it from bidding on the National Broadband Network (NBN) over security concerns (denied by Huawei) and opened an investigation into a proposed Huawei cable between Perth and Singapore.
Rival TE Subcom was pushed by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 2010 visit to NZ.
RAW DATA: Hawaiki statement
Hawaiki signs TE SubCom to supply trans-Pacific cable system
Auckland, 23 September 2013 – 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 is 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. A number of Pacific Islands located next to the cable route will be able 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. The supply contract with TE SubCom is a major step forward for Hawaiki and adds significant momentum to our project,” said Rémi Galasso, Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiki Cable Limited.
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. The company operates a fleet of cable ships that will lay
the cables across the Pacific Ocean.
“We are confident in our choice of supplier. 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,” said Galasso.
The Hawaiki cable system is planned for completion in late 2015.
NBR staff
Tue, 24 Sep 2013
Tue, 24 Sep 2013
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Hawaiki signs contract with TE Subcom to supply, lay Australia-NZ-US cable
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