Manatua Cable Completes First Landing in Apia, Samoa

Photo: Samoan Observer
Photo: Samoan Observer

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

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.”



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