Tech Stream

A Pacific Superhighway

4 September 2009

Listen and download: MP3

Undersea internet telecommunications cables, managed by Tata Communications. The full map is online here.

Internet access in the Pacific is frustrating slow and expensive. This is mainly due to most of the internet traffic being routed through satellites. But that is set to change. A new undersea fiber-optic cable, part of SPIN, South pacific Information Network, should provide internet users in French Polynesia and New Caledonia, as well as the countries in between, with high-speed, affordable broadband. I spoke about the new network with Remi Galasso, CEO of SPIN SA.

We also caught up with Simon Cooper from Tata Communications this week. We spoke about how Guam was turning into a telecommunications hot-spot, with multiple undersea internet cables connecting it to Asia and Australia. Their communications network played a big part in picking up the internet traffic in the region during the recent typhoon near Taiwan which affected some other undersea cables supplying telecommunications into the region.

You can hear both Simon Cooper and Remi Galasso in the MP3 link at the top of this blog post. We’ve had stories on these undersea internet cables in the Pacific in  Tech Stream #25 and also back in March this year.