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Tui cable goes live next month in Samoa

  AFAMASAGA RICO TUPAI: The Minister of Communications and Information Technology. (Photo: Samoa Observer)
 

The Tui cable will go live next month - if there are no glitches along the way. That is the assurance given by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Afamasaga Rico Tupa’i in response to questions from the Samoa Observer. 

He has also assured the public that prices for Internet will be significantly cheaper.

Earlier this month, the Tui Samoa Cable was brought to its landing site in Moata’a, a milestone that was commemorated during a ceremony. 

The Samoa Submarine Cable Company Limited (S.S.C.C) and Alcatel Submarine Networks (A.S.N) began the loading of the 1,470 km Tui-Samoa Cable in July, 2017. 

The cable is being loaded on a freighter in Calais, France, at A.S.N’s factory: the freighter will sail at the end of the month towards Suva, where the cable will then be transferred to the laying cable ship. 

According to the Minister of M.C.I.T. currently, the cable is being laid between Fatuna and Suva Fiji. 

“The plan is to reach Fiji by the second week of December then the testing period starts with the intention to go live before Christmas. 

“All this depends on the smooth operation of the cable-laying process currently in progress so let’s hope it goes well.” 

Regarding cheap internet and what the public needs to expect, Afamasaga stated the price will be less than US$90 ($216T). 

“Government and S.S.C.C. have been working to significantly reduce wholesale capacity prices from an estimated US$300 (771 tala) Mbps to a price which will be less than US$90. 

“It is intended that with affordable bandwidth pricing Samoans licensed telecommunications operators will be able to increase the value proposition for their retail customers. 

“In short Samoans retail customers should see a significant increase in their data bundles,” explained the Minister.

Read more at Samoa Obsserver