Work on the undersea internet cable is well on schedule and is set to be completed before the end of this year, 2019.

That’s according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Solomon Submarine Cable Ltd, Keir Preedy, in a statement issued this week to update the public on the project.

“The first of these is that the completed undersea cable systems, The Coral Sea Cable System (CS2) and the Solomon Islands Domestic Network (SIDN), are currently being loaded onto the Alcatel Cable Ship, Isle de Brehat, in Calais, France,” Preedy said. 

“The ship is scheduled to leave around 20^th April and make its way to the Pacific,” he added.  

Preedy said the ship will first head to Port Moresby and lay the PNG branch of the CS2 cable from June 6^th, heading to Honiara by 20^th June to commence the Solomon Islands branch. 

“It will lay the Solomon Island cable branch back to meet the PNG branch, install the branching unit, then lay the combined CS2 cable down to Sydney for the land termination. 

“The last splice on CS2 should be completed on 10^th August.

“The ship will then return to Honiara to commence the laying of SIDN starting from Honiara at the end of August.”

Preedy said Auki will be connected to Honiara first, then the ship will lay the main body of the cable system to Western Province, complete the branch to Taro, then finally the branch to Noro to complete the system by early October.

“The second important milestone is the shipping of the Solomon Submarine Cable’s prefabricated Cable Landing Stations and office building from X-Site Modular in the USA.

“These specialist data centre buildings will arrive into Honiara during May.  

“They will be installed at their compounds in Honiara by 31^st May (Lengakiki Ridge), in Noro by mid-June and in Auki and Taro by early July.”

He said the Commonwealth’s contractor, Vocus Communications, and their sub-contractor, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), will then install all the required electronics in the landing stations and run the land cables from the beach landing points to the landing stations through Solomon Submarine Cable’s land ducts to complete the system.

“The project is clearly on track to complete all system testing and for the Commonwealth of Australia to hand over the operational cables to the operating companies before the end of 2019,” Preedy said. 

“SISCC expect to complete testing of their own infrastructure and open the services for commercial within the same timeframe so will open for business before the end of 2019.”

Australia is funding this multi-million dollar internet project.

-SISCC Media Release