Samoans one step closer to broadband

Stuart Corner
Monday, 06 October 2008 15:04

IT Industry - Strategy

Pre-sales of capacity on the cables already exceed the satellite capacity currently available. American Samoan telcos have purchased four DS3s (180Mbps) and those in Samoa two DS3, giving a total of 270Mbps. At present total capacity into each of the Samoas is less than one DS3 (45Mbps).

The project is expected to cost around $US20 million, 20 percent of the cost of completely new system (estimated to be at least $US100m to connect American Samoa to Hawaii and another $10m to connect in Samoa.

It mirrors a re-use in 2007 of the PacRim West cable to provide a fibre optic link between Sydney and Port Moresby. About 2000kms of the PacRim West cable which ran between Australia and Guam was re-laid between Sydney and PNG. At the time PNG relied on satellite and a 1Mbps co-axial cable, the world's then oldest still in operation.

Substantial progress has already been made on the American Samoa-Hawaii (ASH) cable and the Samoa-American Samoa (SAS) cable. The deepwater marine survey has been completed and terminal equipment delivered to Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa in preparation for the planned landfall there. From Pago Pago another section of the cable will be run 150km on the seabed to Apia in Samoa.

Recovery and re-laying of the cable is expected to start in late December when seas are calmer. Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded a contract to undertake the project. It is expected to be completed and the cable ready for service by March 2009.

According to the CIA's World Fact Book, the private sector of the economy of American Samoa is heavily dependent on tuna fishing and tuna processing, with canned tuna the primary export and attempts by the government to develop a larger and broader economy have been restrained by Samoa's remote location, its limited transportation and its devastating hurricanes.

However it says that tourism is a promising developing sector. With low latency submarine cable connectivity, American Samoa has the potential to be a very acceptable offshore call centre location for American companies. This is not possible with satellite links where the delay limits the effectiveness of a remote call centre.

Of Samoa, the CIA says that the economy has traditionally been dependent on development aid, family remittances from overseas, agriculture, and fishing. Agriculture employs two-thirds of the labour force and furnishes 90 percent of exports, primarily coconut cream, coconut oil and copra whilst the manufacturing sector mainly processes agricultural products.

One factory in the Foreign Trade Zone employs 3,000 people to make automobile electrical harnesses for an assembly plant in Australia and tourism is an expanding sector, accounting for 25 percent of GDP; 116,000 tourists visited the islands in 2006.