TPG signs as Hawaiki edges closer

Hawaiki’s plan to build a 14,000km trans-Pacific submarine cable edges closer thanks to a multi-million dollar deal with TPG signed in Australia.

TPG Telecom said it will buy Australia-US and Australia-New Zealand capacity on the cable. Both parties are coy about the financial details, however, TPG said in a press release it expects the project means a capital expenditure of between $US10m and $US20m for each of the next three financial years from 2014.

Hawaiki‘s cable will link Australia and New Zealand to Hawaii and from there link to the US west coast. The design will allow Pacific island nations to join the network.

Early customer announcements of this nature are usual as would-be submarine cable operators enter their fund-raising stage.