Securing the Internet requires the installation of a second submarine cable that will be added to Gondwana1, which links Nouméa to Sydney since 2008. To this end, a call for tenders for the security of New Caledonia by international and domestic submarine cables was launched on March 30, 2019. This public tender follows the recommendations of the telecommunications sector report conducted in 2018 by the Government of New Caledonia and presented to the OPT-NC on March, with the choice of an international cable to Fiji.
Huge impacts of submarine cable breaks
There is no need to demonstrate that the only sustainable solution to rescue GONDWANA-1 is the establishment of a second international submarine cable.
The current and future growth of uses is such that any critical incident on the GONDWANA-1 cable would cause serious disruptions that would have major repercussions in New Caledonia. When major submarine cables fail, the impacts are immediate and widespread. It is when incidents occur on these cables that we measure their importance. The recent example of the Tonga submarine cable shutdown in January 2019, revealing financial and social consequences for the country, underscores the importance of full security.
The Fijian solution
In view of the analyzes carried out, the OPT-NC's board of directors validated to secure New Caledonia's international connections by building a second cable connected to Fiji, thus enabling the Office to launch an open tender to meet this need.
OPT-NC's Board of Directors is thus in line with the recommendations of the telecommunications sector study conducted by the Government of New Caledonia, which advocates a regional approach with several objectives:
- boost the regional digital landscape : develop regional digital cooperation, ultimately enabling the sale of digital services from New Caledonian companies to the islands of the Pacific island (Datacenter, Cloud Service, Online Services and OTT). This model of cooperation would make it possible to envisage, for example, a future link with Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia.
- develop the economic attractiveness of New Caledonia and the regional territories by setting up conditions favoring new perspectives (sale of access to international capacity, development of services by New Caledonian companies to the islands of the Pacific) development of tertiary activities)
- meet the goal of securing New Caledonia
This project will change the regional landscape and allow New Caledonia to strengthen its role as a player in the digital landscape of the Pacific zone by providing the means to respond to the opportunities that a growing market can offer while meeting the challenges of the territory.
Launch of an open call for tenders
The call for tenders for the securing of New Caledonia by international and domestic submarine cables was launched on March 30th.
Recall that this call for tenders aims to respond to the relief of Gondwana-1, but also to the domestic security of New Caledonia with the extension of the PICOT-1 cable (connecting Poindimié, Ouvéa, Lifou) to Maré, Ile des Pins, the south of Grande Terre and Nouméa (PICOT-2).
Financing of submarine cables
The OPT-NC wants, to finance this project, to rely on a scheme integrating a contribution in own funds (selffinancing), a loan with specific organizations, a call for the metropolitan tax exemption, and, lastly, a recourse to the metropolitan or European subsidies, in the context of digital development and territorial continuity. The total cost of the project is now estimated at around 4.5 billion francs XPF.
Context reminder
The digital strategy of OPT-NC
The digital strategy is a major focus of OPT-NC, aimed at meeting New Caledonia's development and development needs and contributing to the objectives of the Strategic Plan for the Digital Economy (PSEN) set up by the government.
The OPT-NC is committed to the "Fiber optics for all" plan to deliver, guarantee and secure the accessibility of very high speed for all through the following programs:
- the very high speed mobile program, which provides for the densification of mobile coverage and the deployment of 4G throughout the country. To date, more than 80% of the population is covered in 4G. At the end of 2018, the office counted 381 mobile sites.
- the very high-speed fixed (fiber optic) program, which consists in progressively migrating all customers from the fixed copper network to optical fiber At the end of 2018, 11,000 customers, both individuals and businesses, were connected to fiber optics, or more than 15% of the existing fleet.
- the densification and security program of the optical loop transport network (maritime and terrestrial backbones) aims to improve the quality of service in terms of availability and performance level of our fixed and mobile services throughout the country, including the islands. More than 400 km of terrestrial fiber networks have been deployed. Thanks to this looped architecture, the local terrestrial and submarine networks will connect all the telephone exchanges of Grand Nouméa, the Interior and the Islands via a double attachment. Thus, if tomorrow a break occurs on a direct link, the continuity of service will be ensured thanks to this mesh.
- the security program of New Caledonia with a second international cable to multiply our optical connections to the outside and thus to secure them. Any critical incident on GONDWANA-1 would have strong repercussions on New Caledonia and although under control, the repair of a submarine cable on the high seas remains a particularly complex and long operation.
More than a complex set of spatial planning programs, the strategy carried by the OPT-NC, on the one hand, boosts the development of New Caledonia's digital economy and, on the other, fights against the digital divide.
Thus, it provides a response to all the digital needs of New Caledonians for the next 20 years, promoting the development of new uses.
Reminder of projects
Decided in 2004 and commissioned in 2008, it took 4 years of studies and work to put into service the first GONDWANA-1 submarine fiber optic cable linking New Caledonia to Australia.
As a substitute for satellite links, the GONDWANA-1 cable enabled, as early as 2008, the transition to broadband by promoting the rise of digital in New Caledonia with the increase in speed of ADSL connections or the launch of 3G as of 2011, the arrival of 4G in 2015 and the marketing of the first very high-speed fixed access (fiber) access in early 2016.
In less than 10 years, traffic has increased more than 100 times (from 0.25 Gb in 2007 to more than 32 Gb at the end of 2018).
In a logic of cost optimization, the project also covered the realization of the domestic cable PICOT-1 which connects Ouvéa and Lifou to the Grande Terre from Poindimié.