IT and network technologies giant NEC Corporation has signed a contract for a cable project involving Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands, part of the Micronesia region in the western Pacific Ocean.
The contract is with Palau’s National Submarine Cable Utility Belau Submarine Cable Corporation (BSCC) for the Palau Cable 2 (PC2) optical submarine cable construction project.
PC2, with a total length of approximately 110km, will connect Palau with a large-capacity submarine optical cable that connects Southeast Asia and the US mainland. This cable is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2022.
PC2 adopts the latest optical wavelength multiplexing transmission system of 100 gigabits per second, and as an addition to the first optical submarine cable laid by NEC in Palau in 2017, ensures the redundancy of Palau's network, realizes highly reliable communications, and responds to the increasing demand for communications.
This project is being implemented under a buyer’s credit (export finance) loan agreement by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) with BSCC. The loan portion from SMBC is insured by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). Additional financing is being provided by the United States Government and the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP).
NEC has been a leading supplier of submarine cable systems for more than 50 years and has built more than 300,000 km of cable. The company is particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region.
The original announcement that Japan, the US and Australia were to fund the construction of a subsea cable connecting Palau to the main trans-Pacific deep-sea cable was reported here in October.
