Hawaiki transpacific submarine cable project advances to marine survey stage

Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP and TE SubCom say they have begun the marine survey for the Hawaiki transpacific submarine cable system. The 14,000-km undersea cable network aims to connect Australia and New Zealand to the mainland United States as well as to Hawaii by mid-2018.

The planners will plan the submarine network deployment to support options to expand to several South Pacific islands as well.

The survey will gather the geophysical and geotechnical data necessary to ensure the cable is buried safely and securely, according to Aaron Stucki, president of TE SubCom. The survey follows the launch of a previously announced supply contract in March and a survey of landing sites from May to July 2016.

Hawaiki will be designed with more than 30 Tbps of capacity using TE SubCom's C100U+ Submarine Line Terminating Equipment (SLTE). It will be operated as a carrier-neutral cable system.

"Each stage of this groundbreaking project is important, but after very carefully planning our transpacific route and conducting an extensive survey of each landing site, we are extremely pleased to launch the marine route survey, which will give us data necessary to safely and properly deploy the system in the coming months," said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki. "The team is doing a great job; we are on time and on budget. We are confident that with our trusted supplier, TE SubCom, our cable will be delivered as planned in mid-2018, less than two years from now. Hawaiki is not only bringing competition and diversity to the market, but it's also offering a future-proof solution to its customers in the most cost-effective fashion."

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