Hawaiki Cable Systems, the New Zealand company building the 15,000km Hawaiki trans-Pacific cable, has revealed that it expects the system to be ready for service in June.
More than half of the subsea cable system has been implemented by supplier TE SubCom and marine activities for the New Zealand leg of the system will commence this month, the company said.
The cable system has already landed in Oregon on the west coast of the US and Hawaii, as well as in Sydney, Australia. The cable is scheduled to land in American Samoa in March and be ready for service in June.
The 43Tbps cable system will also have options to expand to several South Pacific islands, including Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia.
“The start of 2018 finds Hawaiki closer and closer to ready for service. Landing the cable in its home country represents a major event for our team and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our New Zealand partners for their continuous support,” Hawaiki CEO Remi Galasso said.
“Hawaiki will bring huge benefits to New Zealand in terms of greater connectivity to Australia and the US, security of supply, diversity and increased business opportunities for the Telecom and IT industries.”
Separately XSite Modular has announced it has been awarded the contract to provide a landing station in Hawaii for the cable system. The company has designed the XSite MCLS facility consisting of ten modules for the landing station, which will be constructed in the US then shipped to and assembled in Hawaii.