Hawaiki names Alaska Communications as US partner

Hawaiki Submarine Cable, the New Zealand company building the Hawaiki cable that will link Australia, New Zealand and the USA, has named Alaska Communications as its landing and operating partner in Oregon on the US West Coast.

Hawaiki’s announcement follows the naming last month of DRFortress as its landing and operating partner in Hawaii.

Alaska Communications operates a statewide data and voice network in Alaska and two geographically diverse submarine cables between Alaska and the Pacific Northwest connecting Alaska to the contiguous US.

The company’s senior vice president, business markets, Bill Bishop, said the Alaska Communications already used its expertise in submarine cable operations to provide landing station and network management capabilities to several other Trans Pacific submarine systems.

Gina Bohreer, senior vice president North America of Hawaik,i said Oregon was a ideal location on the US West Coast to land a submarine cable. “The coast is relatively safe, the state permitting process is efficient and most importantly, our customers like Oregon’s diversity and easy access to US networks and data centres.”

She added: “As part of the US permitting process for international submarine cable, Hawaiki has subsequently submitted its application to the Federal Communication Commission.”

The Hawaiki cable is scheduled to be in service by mid-2018. Hawaiki says it will deliver more than 30Tbps of capacity and will be the fastest and largest link between the US and Australia and New Zealand.