Hawaiki Nui, OPT consider connecting French Polynesia to new submarine cable

Hawaiki Nui and OPT have partnered to assess connecting French Polynesia to the new Hawaiki Nui transpacific submarine cable.

The 26,000km Hawaiki Nui submarine cable will be built on the company's existing Transpacific Cable asset, launched in 2018, which links Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii and Oregon on the west coast of the US.

Hawaiki Nui will offer end-to-end connectivity between Southeast Asia, Australasia and North America.

Hawaiki Nui is a subsidiary of BW Digital, and the agreement with Office des postes et telecommunications of French Polynesia (OPT) marks the first step towards a strategic collaboration between the two partners to design a turnkey solution to connect the country to the cable.

This includes a more than 2,000km subsea branch to Tahiti and providing international capacity to the main hubs of the Pacific region: Singapore, Sydney and Los Angeles.

"We look forward to working with OPT to realise our shared vision of developing international connectivity throughout the Indo-Pacific route," Hawaiki Nui CEO Remi Galasso says.

"We see this partnership bringing together our respective powerful competences in telecommunications infrastructure to design a new transpacific digital highway that will capitalise on, and underscore, French Polynesia's strategic location."

OPT currently has its international network based on the Honotua cable from Tahiti to Hawaii and the Manatua cable from Tahiti to the Cook Islands, Niue and Samoa.

"This collaboration with Hawaiki Nui gives us the opportunity to reach a new stage in our growth strategy within the international connectivity sector," OPT CEO Jean-François Martin says.

"Direct access to a transpacific cable such as Hawaiki Nui will enable us to expand and secure our network as well as position Tahiti as a new regional hub in the South Pacific between Asian and American continents."

The assessment of French Polynesia's eligibility for Hawaiki Nui's submarine cable comes after the company was acquired by BW Digital in May.

The formal completion of the acquisition resulted in BW Digital owning 100% of the shares of Hawaiki, with the new development set to provide a wealth of future cable solutions to customers across APAC and the USA.
Headquartered in Singapore, BW Digital develops, funds and operates digital infrastructures in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a subsidiary of BW Group, a leading global maritime company involved in shipping, maritime infrastructure, and new sustainable technologies.

In a bid to help drive growth, the company has set out a roadmap for the future, featuring a series of complementary developments focused on the Asia-Pacific region. One of these inclusions is Hawaiki Nui, the first submarine cable to directly interconnect Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

In 2018, Hawaiki completed the Hawaiki Transpacific Cable, a 15,000 km subsea fibre optic cable linking Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii and the west coast of the US. It has quickly become a critical infrastructure asset in the regions, providing strong international connections and quality.