Hawaiki

Hawaiki: A Trans-Pacific Submarine Cable System

The Hawaiki submarine cable is a 14,000-kilometer optical fiber system connecting several key locations across the Pacific Ocean. Owned by BW Digital, this cable is listed as in service and plays a significant role in linking the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Tonga, and American Samoa. With its landings in Hillsboro (United States), Kapolei (United States), Mangawhai (New Zealand), Neiafu (Tonga), Pago Pago (American Samoa), and Sydney (Australia), the Hawaiki cable serves as an important trans-Pacific route for telecommunications. What stands out about the Hawaiki cable is the lack of publicly disclosed information about its design capacity, fiber pairs, supplier, and technology. While its recorded ready-for-service year is 2018 according to GeoCables data, discrepancies in industry sources-if any-would need to be highlighted and explored. Additionally, latency measurements from remote probes offer insights into its performance, though artifacts in some data illustrate the challenges of interpreting real-world network behavior.

Quick facts

Length	14,000 km
Ready-for-Service (RFS) Year	2018 (GeoCables database value)
Owner	BW Digital
Status	In service
Design Capacity	Not disclosed
Fiber Pairs	Not disclosed
Supplier	Not disclosed
Technology	Not disclosed
Landing Points	Hillsboro (United States), Kapolei (United States), Mangawhai (New Zealand), Neiafu (Tonga), Pago Pago (American Samoa), Sydney (Australia)

🗺 Show Hawaiki on the interactive cable map

Route

The Hawaiki cable connects six landing points across the Pacific Ocean. Starting in Hillsboro, Oregon, it traverses to Kapolei, Hawaii, before reaching Mangawhai in New Zealand. It also extends to Neiafu in Tonga, Pago Pago in American Samoa, and Sydney in Australia. This route provides connectivity between major economic hubs like the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, while also serving smaller Pacific nations such as Tonga and American Samoa. Each landing point is shared with other cables, creating a network of redundancy. For example, Hillsboro hosts NorthStar, Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN), and Tata TGN-Pacific, while Sydney connects to multiple systems including APX East, Coral Sea Cable System (CS²), and PIPE Pacific Cable-1 (PPC-1). These overlapping infrastructures reduce the risk of complete isolation in case of cable failure.

Why it was built and what it carries

The Hawaiki cable was developed to address growing demand for high-speed international connectivity in the Pacific region. It enhances bandwidth availability for data-intensive applications such as cloud computing, video streaming, and enterprise services. While specific traffic distribution is not disclosed, it likely carries a mix of commercial, residential, and institutional data. The inclusion of smaller Pacific nations like Tonga and American Samoa in its route reflects an effort to improve connectivity in underserved areas. This aligns with broader industry trends of expanding internet access to remote regions.

History: what can be established

The GeoCables database records the Hawaiki cable’s ready-for-service year as 2018. If industry sources suggest a different year, such discrepancies could arise from delays in commissioning, testing, or administrative processes. Without corroborating documentation, the 2018 date remains the most reliable. BW Digital owns the cable, but details about its supplier, fiber pair count, and technological specifications have not been disclosed publicly. This lack of transparency is not uncommon in the submarine cable industry, where proprietary information is often kept confidential.

Capacity and technology

Public sources do not disclose the design capacity, fiber pairs, supplier, or specific technology of the Hawaiki cable. While modern cables typically use dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) to maximize capacity, attributing this to Hawaiki without operator documentation would be speculative. Similarly, the number of fiber pairs, which impacts total bandwidth, remains unknown.

Latency: the physics

The theoretical minimum one-way latency for the Hawaiki cable over its 14,000 km length is approximately 68.6 milliseconds, with a round-trip time (RTT) floor of 137.3 milliseconds. This calculation assumes light propagation speeds of 200,000 to 204,000 km/s in optical fiber. Live measurements from remote probes show higher latencies due to additional factors like land tails, terminal equipment, and routing. For instance:

• Hillsboro to Sydney: minimum 167.4 ms, average 177.2 ms
• Moscow to Hillsboro: minimum 181.1 ms, average 181.8 ms
• Cape Town to Hillsboro: minimum 283.1 ms, average 291.5 ms
• Sydney to Hillsboro: minimum 11.1 ms (artifact), average 12.9 ms

The 11.1 ms minimum between Sydney and Hillsboro is flagged as a measurement artifact, as it is below the physical RTT floor. This anomaly likely results from rate-limited ICMP replies from intermediate routers and does not reflect the true latency of the cable.

Redundancy: what happens if it breaks

If the Hawaiki cable experiences a fault, redundancy is provided by other cables at its landing points. For example:

• Hillsboro: NorthStar, SCCN, Tata TGN-Pacific
• Kapolei: APX East, Bulikula, Tabua, Taihei
• Neiafu: Tonga Domestic Cable Extension (TDCE)
• Pago Pago: Le Vasa, Samoa-American Samoa (SAS)
• Sydney: APX East, Coral Sea Cable System (CS²), PPC-1, and others

Standard industry practices for cable repair involve deploying specialized ships equipped with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to locate and fix faults. Repairs typically take weeks depending on the severity of the issue and weather conditions.

Bottom line

• The Hawaiki cable spans 14,000 km and connects six Pacific landing points.
• Owned by BW Digital, it was recorded as ready for service in 2018.
• Details on design capacity, fiber pairs, supplier, and technology are not publicly disclosed.
• Theoretical RTT floor is 137.3 ms, though real-world latency is higher due to network factors.
• Redundancy is supported by overlapping cables at each landing point.