Georgia to French Polynesia: 298ms Through Honolulu to Tahiti
Based on real RIPE Atlas measurements from GeoCables monitoring infrastructure, March 2026
French Polynesia — Tahiti, Bora Bora, and 116 other islands scattered across 2,000km of the South Pacific — is one of the most isolated internet destinations on the planet. At
298ms, the route from Tbilisi, Georgia to Faaa (Tahiti's main city) tells a story of how Hawaii became the internet crossroads of the Pacific.
The Traceroute
| Hop | Location | Network | RTT |
|---|
| 1–6 | Tbilisi, GE | JSC Global Erty (AS34666) | 26ms |
| 7 | Sofia, BG | Level 3 (AS3356) | 25ms |
| 8 | Honolulu, HI | Level 3 (AS3356) | 252ms |
| 9 | Honolulu, HI | Level 3 (AS3356) | 253ms |
| 10 | Honolulu, HI | Hawaiian Telcom (AS36149) | 254ms |
| 11 | Papeete, PF | Hawaiian Telcom (AS36149) | 335ms |
| 15 | Faaa, PF | ONATI (AS9471) | 298ms |
Sofia to Honolulu in a single hop —
227ms, the transatlantic + transpacific leg of the journey. Then Hawaiian Telcom carries the final segment from Hawaii to Tahiti.
Hawaii: The Pacific's Internet Hub
The routing through Honolulu is not a coincidence. Hawaii sits at the geographic center of the Pacific, and has historically been the landing point for cables connecting:
- North America to Asia (transpacific cables)
- North America to Oceania
- Oceania to Oceania
For French Polynesia,
Honotua is the primary submarine cable — connecting Tahiti to Hawaii (3,800km) and landing at Papeete. Hawaiian Telcom operates the Hawaii end; ONATI (Office des Postes et Télécommunications) handles the Polynesian end.
The 335ms Anomaly
Notice hop 11 shows 335ms — higher than the final destination at 298ms. This is a common traceroute artifact: intermediate routers may process ICMP packets with lower priority, causing them to appear slower than the actual forwarding path. The final RTT of 298ms is the accurate measurement.
French Polynesia's Cable Situation
French Polynesia depends on two main submarine cables:
-
Honotua (2010): Tahiti → Hawaii → US West Coast. Primary international link.
-
Natitua (2018): Inter-island connectivity within French Polynesia (Marquesas, Tuamotu, Austral islands).
Without Honotua, French Polynesia's international internet connectivity would drop to near zero. The cable is 5,800km long and runs entirely under open ocean — repair ships would take weeks to reach a fault in mid-Pacific.
Monitoring Status
-
Current RTT: 298ms |
Path: Tbilisi → Sofia → Honolulu → Papeete → Faaa
-
Key cable: Honotua (Tahiti–Hawaii submarine cable)
-
Final ISP: ONATI — Office des Postes et Télécommunications de Polynésie française