Following six years of negotiations, the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia telecommunications agencies have contracted with Tyco Telecommunications to install an undersea fiber optic connection to Majuro and Ebeye islands in the Marshall Islands and Pohnpei in Micronesia.
“The extension into Majuro and Ebeye, which is part of a larger trunk from Guam to Kwajalein, will provide high bandwidth connectivity between the Republic and the rest of the world,” said Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority General Manager Tony Muller. “The opportunity to connect to the global fiber optic network will be nothing short of transformational for an isolated country like the Marshall Islands.”
The U.S. Army is investing $100 million to bring the cable to the Reagan Test Site missile range at Kwajalein Atoll to provide “real time” data transmission from the missile range to the United States, and the two telecom agencies are purchasing branch cables off the main line. It is expected to be operational by March 2010, Muller said.
Tyco, a business unit of Tyco Electronics, is laying the Micronesian Cable System extension of the Kwajalein Cable System, which is known as HANTRU-1 after owner Hannon Armstrong Capital LLC and operator Truestone LLC.
“The extension we are deploying with Tyco Telecommunications is essential to our development and will enable us to provide services to our customers that we have only dreamed about,” Muller said.
The Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, both former American territories, received loans from the U.S. government’s Rural Utility Services to finance the development. The RUS loan to the Marshall Islands was over $18 million and to the FSM more than $12 million.
The submarine cable extensions to Majuro, Ebeye and Pohnpei will have direct connectivity back to Guam. Since Guam is a regional telecom hub, the islands will have a variety of onward connectivity options, said Muller.
