American Samoa Hawaii (“ASH”) Cable company has announced the submarine cable company’s first annual cash dividend distribution totaling US$1,650,000.

President, Toleafoa Douglas Creevey, who is also CEO of the Bluesky Pacific group of companies, presented cheques for shareholder American Samoa Government (“ASG”) to the Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at the EOB building in Utulei.

“ASH Cable is a successful example of a favorable investment partnership between the private business sector and its government. It gives me great pleasure to share with the community of American Samoa that not a penny of this dividend distribution leaves the territory but is invested right back into our local economy,” Toleafoa clarified with AG Talauega who accepted the dividend on behalf of ASG. “Almost all of the ASH dividend distribution for majority shareholder Elandia Technologies was also presented to ASG in a cheque for the Tax Office for its corporate taxation obligations.”

This is the first time ASH is paying out cash dividends to its two shareholders after successfully paying off its capital loans earlier this year. However local users have enjoyed the benefits ever since the ASH submarine fiber-optic cable linking American Samoa and Hawaii was commissioned in mid 2009, which was a pioneer achievement for American Samoa in the region that immediately enabled high-speed data access to the global information super-highway over one of the earliest private cables to land into a small Pacific island nation.

ASH Cable also extended a cable between Samoa and American Samoa (“SAS Cable”) to also provide the first submarine fiber optic connection into independent Samoa, and both cables have greatly enhanced the local information and communications technology (ICT) experience. ASH has since served and enabled significant new opportunities in both Samoas to utilize the benefits of modern technologies to continually improve government, private business and personal communications, as well as multimedia entertainment.

“Submarine cables are extremely expensive technology investments for our relatively small-population island nations to both invest in and then operate as they require very close, attentive management of all technical and commercial aspects. Our local people expect the latest technologies now and the fiber market is expanding into other untapped islands of the Pacific, including new larger cables now imminent into both Samoas.”