By Submarine Cable News Feed

PPC 1 Limited and PPC 1 (US) Inc. have filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for authority to land and operate a non-common carrier fiber-optic submarine cable system, the PPC 1 System, connecting Sydney, Australia, Piti, Guam, and Madang, Papua New Guinea.

The application said that the PPC 1 System would consist of two segments of digital fiber-optic cable. The first segment will connect Sydney, Australia, with Guam (Australia-Guam Trunk). The second segment (PNG Spur) will connect Madang, Papua New Guinea, with a branching unit located on the Australia-Guam Trunk. There will be an additional branching unit allowing for a future connection to Popondetta, Papua New Guinea.

The Australia-Guam Trunk will consist of two optical fiber pairs, with a design capacity of 96 wavelengths (10 Gbps) on each fiber pair, for a total design capacity of 1.92 Tbps. The initial configuration of the Australia-Guam Trunk will provide a total of 140 Gbps of capacity. The initial configuration of the PNG Spur will provide a total of 20 Gbps of capacity, 10 Gbps on the Papua New Guinea-Guam route and 10 Gbps on the Papua New Guinea-Australia route.

PPC 1 (US), Inc. will construct, own, and operate the wet-link and shore-end portions of the Australia-Guam Trunk in the United States, including in U.S. territorial waters. PIPE International (Australia) Pty. Ltd. will construct, own, and operate the wet-link and shore-end portions of the Australia-Guam Trunk in Australia, including in Australian territorial waters, and will own the cable station at Cromer, New South Wales.

PPC 1 Limited will construct, own, and operate the wet-link portions of the Australia-Guam Trunk outside the territorial waters of the United States and Australia, and will construct, own, and operate the wet-link and shore-end portions of the PNG Spur in Papua New Guinea, including in Papua New Guinea territorial waters. Telkom PNG Limited will own the cable station in Madang, Papua New Guinea.

The PPC 1 System will use the existing cable station at Piti, Guam, which is owned by VSNL International (Guam) Inc. (VSNL Guam). PIPE has requested a waiver of section 1.767(h)(1) which requires that “any entity that controls a cable landing station in the United States” shall be “applicants for, and licensees on, a cable landing license.”

According to the applicants, VSNL Guam will not be able to affect significantly the operation of the PPC 1 cable system, and it is not necessary for VSNL Guam to be a licensee to ensure compliance with the Cable Landing License Act, the Commission's rules or the terms of the cable-landing license. The applicants state that PPC 1 (US) Inc. will enter into an agreement with VSNL Guam giving PPC 1 (US) Inc. a long-term lease in VSNL Guam's ducts and conduits connecting the PPC 1 system's Guam beach landing with the Piti cable station and a long-term lease in the co-location space in the Piti cable station building. PPC 1 (US) Inc. will have exclusive control over and access to PPC 1 System terminal equipment.

In its application, the company said that the system would be separately caged and controlled exclusively by the applicants from their network operations center in the Cromer cable station in Sydney, Australia. The applicants will retain operational authority over PPC 1 System facilities and provide direction to VSNL Guam in all matters relating to the PPC 1 System. Pursuant to a co-location agreement between the applicants and VSNL Guam, VSNL might; but only at the applicant's request, perform certain limited “remote hands” maintenance services on the applicants' equipment.

The applicants propose to operate the cable system on a non-common carrier basis. They state in the application that they will make capacity on the PPC 1 system available to other carriers, Internet service providers, and large end users on an indefeasible right-of-use (IRU) or leased-capacity basis. The capacity will not be sold indifferently to the user public, but will be assigned pursuant to individualized decisions and tailored arrangements based on the needs of the individual capacity purchaser. Applicants also contend that there is sufficient existing or planned facilities on the routes or on alternative routes to prevent it from exercising market power in offering services.

PPC 1 (US) Inc. is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware and is a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of PPC 1 Limited. PPC 1 Limited is a limited-liability company organized under the laws of Bermuda and is a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of PIPE International Pty Ltd., an Australian company. PIPE International is a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of PIPE Networks Limited, a widely held, publicly traded Australian company. Stephen Ross Baxter and Bevan Slattery, both Australian citizens, hold 18% and 14 % of the ordinary shares of PIPE Network respectively. There are no other ten percent or greater direct or indirect owners of PIPE Networks, PPC 1 Limited or PPC 1 (US) Inc.