- Manatua One Polynesia fibreoptic cable lands in Aitutaki, Cook Islands
- Cable will link Aitutaki to Rarotonga and transform connectivity on Aitutaki
- The next Manatua landing will be in Rarotonga providing the Cook Islands with a new international internet gateway
- Cable to be ready for service in mid-2020
Avaroa Cables Ltd has confirmed that the Manatua One Polynesia cable system has been successfully landed in Aitutaki, Cook Islands. It is the first-ever submarine cable in the Cook Islands.
Engineers brought the cable ashore in a complex and skilled operation. Aitutaki is the third landing of the Manatua One Polynesia cable system and follows recent landings in Samoa and Niue. The next landing will see the cable come ashore in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, followed by Bora Bora and Tahiti in French Polynesia in early 2020, which will complete the system.
The event is the culmination of lengthy preparations by the Manatua Cable Consortium partners in Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, and French Polynesia.
The cable will link Aitutaki to Rarotonga at up to 10Tbps (=10,000,000Mbps), from where the Manatua cable will connect to the global internet via Apia, Samoa, and Tahiti, French Polynesia.
The Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna and Deputy Prime Minister and Telecommunications Minister Mark Brown led celebrations to mark the event, which coincided with Aitutaki day.
The Manatua cable will be ready for service in mid-2020.
This is a historic moment. The Manatua cable will underpin a transformation in the connectivity of our nation, starting right here in Aitutaki. Together with the new Telecommunications Act and Competition Act, we have laid the foundations for a new era of affordable, reliable, resilient and fast connections. These will supercharge the way Cook Islanders, and our visitors, live, work and learn. This is a very complex project and I am very proud to see the professionalism with which it is being executed with Cook Islanders at the very heart of the work.
I pay tribute to the engineers, operators, technicians, and technologists that have worked with ACL to bring this fibre optic connectivity to Aitutaki. It was a challenging operation and one executed with the utmost skill. This landing in Aitutaki marks the halfway point in the construction of the Manatua One Polynesia Cable and so far it is going incredibly well. We are confident that we will deliver a fantastic system that will transform Polynesian connectivity for many years to come.