Kumul Submarine Cable Network Lands in PNG's Vanimo
By Telecompaper
March 3, 2020
The Kumul submarine cable network (KSCN) has landed in West Sepik’s Vanimo in Papua New Guinea, The National reported.
The project, part-funded by the Chinese government, signifies the cooperation between China and PNG governments, said a commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy in PNG, Liu Linlin. Liu said the PNG government had approached China for funding support and the Chinese Exim Bank provided 85 percent preferential buyers credit to the PNG government to carry out the project.
The contractors are China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation which provided cable equipment, and Huawei carrying out the construction and maintenance of the landing equipment.The 5,457-km KSCN will provide the domestic internet platform to link fourteen provinces and two national data centres in Port Moresby and Madang. It will connect to Jakarta through Indonesia’s national backbone submarine cable network and further connect to Asia to form a new international internet gateway.
The first phase of the project, System 2, was completed in December 2018 with a length of 1874km connecting Port Moresby, Alotau, Lae and Madang. System 1 is ongoing and System 3 is yet to start. According to the projection, by June, the project should be completed and transferred to PNG, Liu said.
