US Gov't OK's Pipe's submarine cable to land in Guam

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 09:55

Business IT - Networking

Pipe Networks has cleared one of the last major hurdles in its plan to build an optic fibre network between Sydney, Guam and Papua New Guinea with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granting it landing rights in Guam.

The cable, PPC 1, will consist of two segments: the Australia-Guam trunk, connecting Sydney with Piti, Guam; and the PNG spur connecting Madang in PNG with a branching unit on the Australia-Guam Trunk. There will be an additional branching unit allowing for a future connection to Popondetta in PNG. Pipe confirmed in January 2008 that the $200m project would go ahead. It is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2009.

The Australia-Guam trunk will consist of two fibre pairs with a design capacity of 96 wavelengths each carrying 10Gbps, a total of 1.92Tbps. Initially it will be configured with 140Gbps of capacity and the PNG Spur will provide a total of 20Gbps of capacity, 10Gbps on the PNG-Guam route and 10Gbps on the PNG-Australia route. The PPC 1 system will use the existing cable station at Piti, Guam, which is owned by VSNL International (Guam) where it will interconnect with other cable for onward connection to the US and Asia.

Pipe's US subsidiary, PPC 1 (US) Inc, will construct, own and operate the shore-end and wet-link portions in the United States, of the Australia-Guam section including those in US territorial waters. Another subsidiary, Pipe International (Australia) Pty Ltd, will construct, own and operate the wet-link and shore-end portions of the Australia-Guam section in Australia, including the portion in Australian territorial waters, and will own the cable station at Cromer in Sydney's Northern Suburbs.

PPC 1 Limited , a Bermuda registered wholly-owned subsidiary of Pipe International, will construct, own and operate the wet-link portions of the Australia-Guam Trunk outside the territorial waters of the United States and Australia and will construct, own and operate the wet-link and shore-end portions of the segment connecting Madang, Papua New Guinea with the branching unit. Telkom PNG Limited will own the cable station in Madang, Papua New Guinea.

According to the FCC's notice, Pipe Networks' founders, Stephen Baxter and Bevan Slattery, hold respectively 18 percent and 14 percent the shares in publicly-listed Pipe Networks and are the only shareholders with more than 10 percent of the company.