APNG-2 (cable system)
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The APNG-2 submarine communications cable is being constructed to link Papua New Guinea directly to Australia and indirectly to New Zealand and the rest of the world, and will be in service from late 2006.
The new cable is a collaboration between Telikom PNG, Telstra (in Australia), and Telecom New Zealand.
APNG-2 replaces the APNG-1 cable, a coaxial copper cable of 16 Mbit/s, retired in early 2006.
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[edit] Construction
APNG-2 will reuse part of the PacRimWest optical fibre cable that formerly linked Australia to Guam and on to Japan.
[edit] Recovery and relaying
An 1,800 km section of the PacRimWest cable will be recovered from just south of Guam, with the ship sailing towards the Solomon Islands.
The ship will then recover a loop of the PacRimWest cable off Rockhampton, Queensland, break it, splice to the Sydney end the recovered 1,800 km section, and sail towards PNG, making landfall at Ela Beach near Port Moresby, where a terminal station from Guam will be re-established to link to the Telikom PNG network.
[edit] Capability
PacRimWest is a fibreoptic cable with two fibre pairs. These will be used to provide APNG-2 with around 1100 Mbit/s data capability, consisting of 2 x 565 Mbit/s PDH systems with , all electronic regeneration.
[edit] Cost
The reuse of the cable is expected to save about 80% of the cost of a new cable: USD$11 million v $60 m.
[edit] Testing
A 300 km segment of the PacRimWest cable was recovered and tested from a section south of the intended recovery route. It was found to be sound and suitable for reuse.
[edit] Cable ship
The cable ship being used is CS Ile de Re (named after the French west coast island, Île de Ré.)
