Tui - Samoa submarine cable

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The project envisages the laying, management and operation of a 1,470 kilometers long submarine cable stretching from Apia, Samoa to Suva, Fiji with support branching units in Wallis and Futuna, and Vanua Levu, Fiji. Samoa Submarine Cable Company (SSCC) is a private company which is responsible for the project implementation. SSCC will operate a Cooperative Sustainable Wholesale Model (CSWM). The project company is made up of six shareholders. The private partners are BlueSky, CSL (Computer Services Limited), and Digicel, plus the Unit Trust of Samoa (UTOS) in which Samoans invest own resources as small local investors. The project is backed by the government through Samoa Life Assurance Corporation (state - owned) and Samoa National Provident Fund (state - controlled). Since ownership split was publicly undisclosed, the respective stake for each partner is equal. This is a greenfield project initiated on a merchant basis which services will be sold as wholesale capacity to other service providers. The project will provide its services as a wholesale provider. The price and availability of the capacity will be regulated by the Office of The Regulator (OoTR) which will ensure that pricing and access to services is cost based and available on an equitable basis to any existing and future licensed service providers. ADB’s grant ($25 million), which has been sourced from ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund, will be complemented by co-financing of $16 million from the World Bank and $1.5 million from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with SSCC providing $8.18 million in equity; the government of Samoa will cover taxes and duties of $6.73 million. The total project cost is estimated at $57.4 million. Cable laying commenced on July 20th, 2017 with funding being secured. As of November 1st, 2017 the overall progress of the works stood at 78% and should be completed by year end. https://www.southerncrosscables.com/Home/Industry/Insight/samoa-submarine-cable-company-sscc http://ssccsamoa.com/ssccs-tui-samoa-submarine-cable-route-survey-underway/ http://www.pireport.org/articles/2015/11/27/adb-provides-samoa-grant-submarine-cable-project Shareholders to be added to sponsors' list: BlueSky (http://blueskysamoa.ws/) CSL (https://www.csl.ws/)