Capacity on the upcoming SEA-US subsea cable is selling like hotcakes, underscoring the demand for bandwidth between the two regions.
Hawaiian Telcom, one of the partners in the cable venture, has revealed it has sold nearly $30 million in capacity on its portion of the cable.
The operator’s CEO, Scott Barber, said the robust sales demonstrate the need for the new cable.
“Hawaiian Telcom joined the SEA-US consortium because our community and our customers' thirst for broadband capacity was growing exponentially, but the trans-Pacific capacity required to meet this demand just wasn't being addressed," he said.
"We are pleased that the interest in bandwidth on the SEA-US network has been very strong and we are well ahead of forecasted sales projections with contracts secured to date. These sales validate the need for bandwidth in this route.”
The SEA-US cable is being built by a consortium consisting of Hawaiian Telcom, Indonesia’s Telin, the Philippines’ Globe Telecom and subsidiary GTI Corporation, cable operator RAM Telecom International, Teleguam Holdings and Telkom USA.
Once complete, the $250 million system will span for 9,300 miles of fiber and deliver an initial 20Tbps of capacity. It will be the first subsea cable directly linking Indonesia and the US.
The consortium was founded in September last year. The system is being built by NEC and NEC of America, which commenced construction in April and expect to complete the build in the fourth quarter of next year.