Senior representatives from Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Nauru, Japan and the United States came together in Japan this week to attend the East Micronesia Cable Project Executive Board meeting.
Participants celebrated the excellent progress in project delivery to date, with civil works and installation of prefabricated Cable Landing Stations at the four cable landing sites in Kosrae and Pohnpei, FSM, Tarawa in Kiribati and Nauru, in final stages of completion. Loading of the cable onto the cable lay ship the Normand Clipper commenced in late May, with the laying of the cable scheduled to start in July.
The East Micronesia Cable will bring faster, high quality and more reliable and affordable internet to more than 100,000 people across FSM, Kiribati and Nauru, providing better access to services, information and worldwide markets.
Discussions between the six partner governments focused on business and financial planning as well as system operations and maintenance in preparation for the cable being ready for service by November 2025.
The delegation also visited the East Micronesia Cable project’s submarine cable supplier NEC Corporation’s factory in Otsuki, where a range of equipment for the 2,250-kilometre-long cable is being manufactured. The USD95 million (AUD135 million) project is funded through grants from Australia, Japan and the United States, and will deliver a submarine telecommunications cable and supporting infrastructure connecting Kiribati, Nauru and the state of Kosrae in FSM to the existing HANTRU-1 cable landing point located in Pohnpei, FSM.
The delegation visited the East Micronesia Cable project’s submarine cable supplier NEC Corporation’s factory in Otsuki
The NEC Corporation factory manufactures a range of equipment for the 2,250-kilometre-long cable