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wiredInUSA - October 2013
43
ASIA / AFRICA NEWS
INDEXHawaiki’s plan for a submarine cable to
link Australia and New Zealand with Hawaii
continues tomake progress with the signing
of a supply contract with TE SubCom.
The deal will see the supplier design and
lay fiber capable of transmitting 10Tbps per
fiber pair on the Australia–New Zealand
to Hawaii trunk. The design will allow for
Pacific Island nations near the main cable
to connect to the network.
Although no specifics about the price of
the deal have been revealed, it is likely to
be hundreds of millions of dollars.
Hawaiki said in a statement that TE SubCom
has a fleet of cable ships to lay the cable,
and that the supplier has experience with
local permitting practices – something
that could become critical as the project
develops.
Although the contract is no guarantee that
the project will be completed, Hawaiki
plans continue to be that the cable will be
in place by late 2015.
The cable will be based on 100Gbps
wavelength technology, in common with
the Southern Cross cable which states it
operates at 100Gbps.
TE SubCom clinches
cable contract
Tanzania’s National ICT Broadband
Backbone (NICTBB) fiber network is
attracting interest from neighboring
countries such as Mozambique and
Uganda, now in connection talks with
Tanzania, while some Kenyan companies
are due to sign agreements to utilize the
network.
The
Tanzania
Telecommunications
Company Ltd (TTCL) chief of marketing
and sales officer Peter Ngota told journalists
during the recent Capacity Africa 2013
conference in Dar es Salaam that the trend
is encouraging.
“A lot of people attending this international
conference praise the expertise used to
construct our optic cable fiber network...
we should congratulate the government
for this,” he said.
Through the NICTBB, Tanzania has been
connected with East Africa’s submarine
cable networks including SEACOM, EASSY
and SEAS. Ngota said that Africa is planning
to utilize submarine cable networks in the
continent to build an Internet center to
serve the continent.
Tanzania's optic fiber network
attracts the neighbors