Northland signs pact to land proposed Hawaiki trans-Pacific cable

Northland Regional Council’s Northland Inc unit has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hawaiki Cable in a plan to link Whangarei in a Pacific-wide submarine fibre optic cable.

Northland Inc, a council unit tasked with growing the region’s economy, will aid the landing and funding of the US$350 million cable in the New Zealand city by sourcing local investors, promoting funding through council, and facilitating the consent process, Hawaiki and the unit said in a statement.

“This MoU has the potential to bring direct and indirect benefits worth millions to Northland’s local economy alone,” Northland Inc chair Colin Mitten said. “Our plan is to develop information and communication technologies to substantially strengthen Northland’s economy, which is currently based on the primary sector, as well as create new job opportunities.”

Northland Inc seeks to grow the regional economy by $2 billion over the coming decade from its current $5.35 billion, roughly 2.6 percent of national gross domestic product.

Hawaiki emerged as another player seeking to build a trans-Pacific cable last year, and plans to link Australia, New Zealand, and a raft of Pacific island nations with Hawaii and Oregon in the US by the second half of 2015.

The project is headed by Remi Galasso, a former Alcatel Lucent executive who founded Noumea-based telecommunications infrastructure company Intelia in 2005. Intelia designs and implements wire and wireless networks and backhaul, and can design and build IT systems.

Earlier this year, New Zealand’s dominant phone companies Telecom Corp and Vodafone New Zealand linked up with Australia’s Telstra Corp to look at building a new Auckland-to-Sydney submarine cable.

(BusinessDesk)