Auki, Solomon Islands

Auki, Solomon Islands: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Auki is the provincial capital of Malaita Province, located on the north-west coast of Malaita island along the northern end of Langa Langa Lagoon in the Solomon Islands. As one of the largest provincial towns in the country, Auki serves as a submarine cable landing point connecting the Solomon Islands to the broader Pacific and Australian telecommunications corridor. One submarine cable lands at Auki, linking it to a network that spans Australia, Papua New Guinea, and other Solomon Islands landing points.

The single cable landing at Auki forms part of the Coral Sea Cable System, a system that reached service in 2020 and represents the foundational layer of submarine cable connectivity for the Solomon Islands as a whole. The corridor enabled by this cable is intercontinental in nature, extending connectivity between the South Pacific island nation and Australia, while also bridging neighboring Papua New Guinea. Auki's position as a landing point on this system reflects the extension of this infrastructure beyond the national capital and into a major provincial center.

Cables Landing at Auki

The Coral Sea Cable System (CS²) is the sole submarine cable landing at Auki. Spanning approximately 4,700 kilometers, the system reached ready-for-service status in 2020. In addition to Auki, the cable connects to landing points in Australia and Papua New Guinea, as well as other locations within the Solomon Islands. This makes the Coral Sea Cable System the defining piece of submarine infrastructure for Auki, providing the town's first direct international subsea cable link upon its completion.

Regional Context

Within the Solomon Islands, submarine cable infrastructure is distributed across four landing points: Honiara, Noro, Taro, and Auki. Honiara, the national capital, hosts two cables, making it the most connected landing point in the country. Auki, Noro, and Taro each host one cable, placing Auki in the upper half of Solomon Islands landing points by cable count. Auki's position as a provincial capital on Malaita island distinguishes it as a significant node in extending national connectivity beyond Honiara.

Network Role

Auki functions as a single-cable terminus on the Coral Sea Cable System, meaning all of its international subsea connectivity is carried by one system. Through that system, Auki is connected to Australia and Papua New Guinea, giving Malaita Province a direct share in the broader Pacific submarine cable network that was inaugurated across the Solomon Islands in 2020. The cable's reach into both intercontinental and regional corridors means that Auki participates in the same international links serving the rest of the country.

The presence of a cable landing at Auki, rather than routing all Solomon Islands traffic through Honiara alone, reflects the geographic distribution of infrastructure across multiple provincial centers. In the regional submarine cable graph for the South Pacific, Auki represents one of four Solomon Islands nodes on a system that anchors the country's international connectivity to Australia and Papua New Guinea.