Moana Cable submarine network to offer Pacific Ocean connectivity

Bluesky Pacific Group, a Pacific-area regional communications provider and subsidiary of Amper SA, has signed Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks to a turnkey contract for the construction of a new submarine network. The Moana Cable subsea system will link New Zealand and Hawaii and provide additional connectivity to the Cook Islands and Samoa.

The Moana Cable will run a total of 9,700 km across two main segments. The first segment, a more than 8,000-km run comprising two fiber pairs, will link New Zealand and Hawaii. It also will serve Samoa and American Samoa. The second segment, 1,700 km long and consisting of a single fiber pair, will link the Cook Islands to the Samoa hub.

The undersea cable network also will have the ability to support potential links to such Pacific islands as Niue, Tokelau, and Tonga via the New Zealand-to-Hawaii trunk, as well as French Polynesia near the Cook Islands.

The Bluesky Pacific Group and Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks expect to complete construction of the Moana Cable in 2018. The network will support 200-Gbps wavelengths and will be designed with a total potential capacity of 20 Tbps.

Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks will deploy its 1620 SOFTNODE and OADM branching units as part of the project. The company will be responsible for the project on a turnkey basis, from system design to installation and commissioning, as well as marine operations (cable laying and maintenance).

Bluesky Pacific Group already operates a pair of submarine cable networks -- the ASH Cable that connects American Samoa to Hawaii and the SAS Cable that links Samoa to American Samoa. It says that anchor customers for the new subsea cable will include Bluesky Pacific Group companies and existing ASH Cable customers. The company says it has signed an agreement with RAM Telecom International, Inc., for collaboration and interconnection of the Moana Cable with RAM's SEA-US submarine cable, which connects Asia to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.

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