Huawei Marine to Build Subsea Cable Network for PNG

Huawei Marine said it will help Papua New Guinea to build a national broadband transmission network to meet the increasing demand for internet connectivity and foster social and economic development across the country.

Located in the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea is an island nation with numerous mountains and volcanoes, where domestic telecommunications largely relies on satellite and microwave communications. Huawei Marine and PNG DataCo Limited, a telecommunications carrier established by the PNG government, will construct a national submarine cable network to provide the backbone telecommunications needed by major coastal centers and islands in Papua New Guinea.

At 5, 457km in length, the submarine cable network will provide domestic connectivity across 14 main population centers, and international connectivity by a link to Jayapura in Indonesia.

The design capacity of the system is 8Tbps, which will cater for increased bandwidth demand over the next 10-15 years. When completed, the network should cover 55% of the population and should provide more than 70% of Papua New Guinea’s domestic bandwidth requirements.

Paul Komboi, managing director of DataCo, said: “This new system is very important to Papua New Guinea as it includes not only a new submarine cable network but also Internet Gateways and Data Centres. This will improve the whole ICT infrastructure in the country and greatly increase network coverage, capacity and the availability of Internet and broadband services to end users. DataCo is proud to contribute to the national broadband plan in the country. Our selection of the experienced team at Huawei Marine, following a tender process, will ensure a successful implementation and delivery of this system.”

Mike Constable, chief executive, Huawei Marine, said: “For island nations, submarine cable systems are key components required for the development of an affordable and effective ICT infrastructure. We are proud to be partnering with DataCo to improve and expand telecommunication access in support of Papua New Guinea’s social and economic development.”