Cable’s backers join together for ground breaking ceremony Cable landing stations will provide gateway to new international cable
The new cable landing station will provide the gateway for connectivity for both Rarotonga and Aitutaki through the 3700km cable and on to the rest of the world. It will house multi-million dollar state-of-the-art telecommunications transmission equipment sending and receiving digital communications at up to 10Tbps (=10,000,000Mbps) using lasers and “coherent modulation” over the optical fibre. The secure facility will also monitor the performance of the cable in real time and be equipped with back-up power capabilities.
Tauturu Orometua John Andrews conducted a blessing ahead of work which will start immediately to clear the Aro’a site and construct foundations for the advanced facility, currently en route from the factory in Perth, Australia. The construction of a sister station in Aitutaki will also commence shortly.
The cable landing station is expected to be ready for operational service in February 2020, in time to allow the entire Manatua cable and its six landings across Polynesia to be commissioned.
Completion of the Trans Polynesian Information Superhighway is on target to be ready for service in June 2020.
Cook Islands Government Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown said: “The new cable is vital to our economy. It will enable us to engage fully with the rest of the world in a vast array of new and powerful ways. Today is another exciting step closer to our goal and an important milestone for this critical project.”
Dr Ranulf Scarbrough, ACL CEO and Vice Chair of the Manatua Cable Consortium said: “Manatua’s Rarotonga Cable Landing Station is a hugely important element of the Manatua Cable system. It will provide Rarotonga and Aitutaki with an international gateway and will be the hub of ACLs efforts to supercharge the connectivity of Rarotonga and Aitutaki for many years to come.”