Under the terms of the multi-billion-dollar deal, the three operators will leverage the Hawaiki branch to American Samoa, delivering providing critical diversity to help drive ASH’s wholesale business.
“Bridging the digital divide in the Pacific is something that has been part of Hawaiki’s DNA from the beginning,” said Remi Galasso, CEO of Hawaiki.
“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.”
Specifically, to deliver international broadband to local operators and ISPs in American Samoa, Samoa, French Polynesia as well as other nations and territories.
ASTCA, a state-owned telecom in American Samoa, owns the 400km subsea branch that connects the Hawaiki trunk to the US.
“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,” said Paul Michael Young, president of ASH.
“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 endeavours.”
ASH, jointly owned by Fiji’s ATH Group and the American Samoa Government, owns the Samoa to American Samoa (SAS) cable.
ASH enables Hawaiki 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.
“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,” added Joseph Pereira, chairman of the board of ASTCA.
“ASTCA is very happy that other Pacific communities will benefit from our decision to connect American Samoa to the world through Hawaiki and ASH.”
