TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, said that it has been contracted by Vanuatu-based consortium Interchange Ltd. to construct the ICN2 submarine cable linking Port Vila, Vanuatu, and Luganville, Vanuatu to Honiara, Solomon Islands. Initially, the 1,632-km cable will use SL14-A1 cables and TE SubCom partner Ciena's submarine line terminating equipment (SLTE) to deliver 200G of high-capacity access to several landing sites. The undersea cable system will be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2019, says TE SubCom.
According to its website, Interchange completed ICN1 in 2014, linking Vanuatu directly into the high capacity Southern Cross cable between Sydney and the U.S. Alcatel-Lucent was involved in the $32 million project, deploying Vanuatu's first international submarine cable system to connect Port Vila, Vanuatu to Suva, Fiji (see "Vanuatu chooses Alcatel-Lucent for undersea fiber-optic cable").
"Interchange Ltd. is committed to improved ICT infrastructure to communities we serve throughout the Melanesian region. The ICN2 cable project truly supports our mission," said Simon Fletcher, Interchange Limited's CEO. "ICN2 is the first CIF submarine cable to the Solomon Islands. With the planned future systems in the region, we feel confident they will be complementary and serve to build a redundant and reliable network. This should provide some confidence to regional investors and data center partners."
This contract follows TE SubCom's announcement yesterday that it signed the South Pacific Marine Maintenance Agreement (SPMMA) to maintain over 51,000 km of cable that constitutes 19 disparate telecommunications and power cable systems (see "TE SubCom signs South Pacific Marine Maintenance Agreement to maintain 51,000 km of telecom, power cables").
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