Security of the new Caledonia Internet : OPT-NC awards the public contract to ASN
The OPT-NC board of directors decided on April 22nd to award the contract for the construction and installation of his new subsea cables (international and domestic) to ALCATEL SUBMARINE NETWORKS (ASN).
In order to provide additional network capacity and resilience alongside the existing Gondwana-1 cable system, which connects Noumea to Sydney since 2008, OPT-NC launched a public tender a year ago. This second subsea cable includes an international part from Noumea to Suva (Fiji) and a domestic part, completing the local subsea loop PICOT.
An open call for tenders happened on March 30 and was in line with the recommendations from the New Caledonia Government, with the choice of a second international cable connected to Fiji.
Purpose of the contract
International security
The deployment of this new submarine cable will ensure New Caledonia international connectivity by enabling a direct link between Noumea and Suva (at FINTEL landing station, FINTEL is the international public operator of Fiji). This connection will complete the GONDWANA cable built between Sydney and Noumea in 2008.
Home security
Domestic connectivity will be secured by the cable deployment connecting the south of the main island (Noumea, Mont-Dore, Yate) to the isle of Pines and the Loyalty islands (Mare and Lifou). This cable will allow the development of fixed and mobile very high-speed broadband in those areas, which are currently connected by radio hop. The looping of the PICOT cable at Lifou (which already connects Ouvea and Poindimie), will also ensure the security of all New Caledonian traffic.
Connection to Fiji
A connection to Fiji represents an opportunity of reinforcing regional integration and facilitating the connection to Wallis and Futuna territories and to the French Polynesia.
Given the stakes for the country, the New Caledonian Government wished to question the French State in order to ascertain its remarks and recommendations on the general principle of securing the territory by a second international submarine cable and on the specific question of a connection to Fiji. The French State formulated its response indicating that:
- a connection to Fiji does not give rise to any objection from the point of view of defence and national security on the part of the competent authorities consulted;
- the cost of OPT-NC's domestic and international security project is in line with the norm of this kind of projects, particularly those already deployed in the Pacific area;
- the diversification of OPT-NC's project financing can be based on national tax exemption, national and European subsidies and a loan from major national donors, as it was the case for the connection of the Wallis and Futuna TUI-SAMOA cable and the French Polynesia NATITUA project.
Award of the contract to ALCATEL SUBMARINE NETWORKS (ASN)
The board of directors held on April 22nd awarded the contract to ALCATEL SUBMARINE NETWORKS (ASN) for an amount of 4.47 billion F.CFP (37,5 million euros) and a duration of 5 years for a commissioning in early 2022 :
| Contracts | Amount in XPF (excl. tax) | Amount in FJD (excl. tax) |
|---|---|---|
| International security to Fidji | 3 223 633 679 | 66 605 289 |
| Home security | 1 250 590 589 | 25 839 148 |
| Total | 4 474 224 268 | 92 444 437 |
Founded in 1850, with more than 600,000 km of undersea cables installed worldwide, ALCATEL SUBMARINE NETWORKS (ASN) is a major player in the submarine cable sector in telecommunications, oil and gas fields. ASN has its own cable manufacturing plants, transmission equipment and its own fleet of vessels that install repair and maintain submarine telecommunications cables.
As part of the contract, ASN will act as overall project manager, will produce the equipment (cables, repeaters, termination equipment) directly in its factories and will subcontract to Caledonian companies’ part of the services which will be performed locally.