Hawaiki, ASH and ASTCA form new alliance

Hawaiki Submarine Cable, American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) and American Samoa Hawaii Cable (ASH) have formed a three-way alliance dedicated to boosting capacity linking Pacific territories and nations to Hawaii and the US mainland.

The multi-million dollar deal brings three operators together to take advantage of the Hawaiki branch to American Samoa, securing trans-Pacific connectivity into the future.

Completed in 2018, the Hawaiki Transpacific Cable is a 15,000 km, 67Tbps, carrier-neutral subsea fibre network linking Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Hawaii and five points-of-presence on the US West Coast.

ASTCA, a state-owned telecom in American Samoa, owns the 400km subsea branch that connects the Hawaiki trunk to the United States territory.

ASH, jointly owned by Fiji’s ATH Group and the American Samoa Government, owns the Samoa to American Samoa (SAS) cable and allows Hawaiki bandwidth and circuits to reach beyond American Samoa to Samoa and all interconnected points, including French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and Niue, as well as Fiji and Wallis and Futuna.

Hawaiki CEO Remi Galasso described the agreement as an important milestone for communications in the South Pacific, forming the basis for future collaborations between the company and the growing number of carriers servicing the region.

“Bridging the digital divide in the Pacific is something that has been part of Hawaiki’s DNA from the beginning,” Remi Galasso said. “In these challenging times, communications infrastructure and reliable connectivity have an even more critical role to play in supporting the continuity and development of businesses and communities in regions that have traditionally been underserved.”

Paul Michael Young, president of ASH, said: “Due to the small size of most Pacific Islands telecommunications markets and fragmented submarine cable infrastructures, partnerships like this one show how individual interests can be knitted together to create something that is truly bigger and stronger than the sum of its parts. This deal is the culmination of months of negotiations with each party sacrificing something for the greater good: the people of American Samoa. ASH is grateful for the kindness and cooperation of its alliance partners, Hawaiki and ASTCA, and looks forward to many similar future endeavors.”

Joseph Pereira, chairman of the board of ASTCA added: “We have always believed that Governor Lolo Moliga’s decision to invest in building a branch connecting American Samoa to the main Hawaiki trunk would benefit other countries and territories. ASTCA is very happy that other Pacific communities will benefit from our decision to connect American Samoa to the world through Hawaiki and ASH.”