MANATUA CABLE COMPLETES FIRST LANDING IN APIA, SAMOA
First of six cable landings completed
Landings in Aitutaki in mid-December and Rarotonga at Christmas
Cable to be ready for service in June 2020
APIA, SAMOA, 25 NOVEMBER 2019 — Avaroa Cable Ltd has confirmed that the first landing of the Manatua One Polynesia Cable, into Apia, Samoa, has been successfully completed.
Engineers brought the cable ashore on Monday afternoon in a complex and skilled operation.
The event is the culmination of lengthy preparations by the Manatua Cable Consortium partners in Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and French Polynesia.
The Prime Minister of Samoa led celebrations to mark the event.
The Cable laying operation will now set out across the waters of the South Pacific with the next landing in Niue in early December. Landings are currently planned in Atike, Aitutaki in mid-December and Rutaki, Rarotonga immediately after Christmas. Cable laying operations are scheduled to complete in French Polynesia in January 2020, with landings in Tahiti and Bora Bora.
The activities are happening in parallel with the construction of two cable landing stations in the Cook Islands, one each in Aro’a, Rarotonga and Erangi, Aitutaki. State-of-the art facilities have now arrived on the islands and are expected to be commissioned in December. The addition of the transmission facilities will complete the stations in January 2020.
The Manatua cable will be ready for service in June 2020.
Dr Ranulf Scarbrough, ACL CEO and Vice Chair of the Manatua Cable Consortium said: “This first landing is the culmination of huge level of preparation. We are delighted to have got the cable laying off to a great start. We have a long way to go and we are confident that we will deliver a fantastic system that will transform Polynesian connectivity for many years to come.”
ENDS
Further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to Rebecca Tavioni on +682–56621 or by email to rebecca.tavioni@cookislands.gov.ck
About Avaroa Cable Ltd
ACL is the state-owned enterprise (SOE) which manages the Cooks Islands involvement in the Manatua Cable project and its commercialisation as an international and domestic wholesale operator. ACL has been established, and the independent board which oversees it is appointed, by the Cook Islands Investment Corporation, which is the government body responsible for SOEs. ACL’s board is chaired by local business woman Tatiana Burn. Funding has been provided by the Cook Islands Government, the New Zealand Aid Programme and the Asian Development Bank.
About the Cook Islands
The Cook Islands is an independent democracy comprising 15 islands in the south Pacific of c.15,000 people operating in free association with New Zealand.
About the Manatua — One Polynesia Cable
The Manatua cable will be 3700km long connecting Samoa, Niue, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Tahiti and Bora. The cable will be capable of operating at up to 10 tera bits per second (= 10,000,000 megabits per second) using state-of-the-art fibre optic technology, enough speed to download 300 high definition movies every single second.
About the Manatua Cable Consortium
The ground-breaking Manatua cable consortium was formed following the signing of an International Treaty in November 2018 between the governments of the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and French Polynesia. The purpose of the consortium is to build and operate the Manatua cable. The consortium comprises Avaroa Cable Ltd (for the Cooks Islands), Niue Telecom, the Samoa Submarine Cable Company and Office de Poste et Telecommunications (for French Polynesia). It is the first consortium of its type anywhere in the Pacific.
About the New Zealand Aid Programme
The Cook Islands involvement in the Manatua Cable project has been part funded with NZ$15m of grant funding from the New Zealand Aid Programme. (www.mfat.govt.nz/en/aid-and-development)
About the Asian Development Bank
The Cooks Islands involvement in the Manatua Cable project has been part funded with US$15m of loan funding from the Asian Development Bank.
(www.adb.org)
