FINTEL has partnered with HFC BANK for a $46 million-dollar funding for a digital enhancement in the Southern Cross Cable Network [SCCN]. This relates to the new submarine cable system dubbed “SX NEXT”.
Fintel Chairman, Sashi Singh and HFC Chairman, Tom Ricketts, flanked by Fintel CEO, George Samisoni and HFC CEO, Rakesh RamThe SCCN is an optical fibre submarine cable network that links Fiji’s international telecommunications systems with the rest of the world and provides the bulk of Fiji’s internet and data access.
Consisting of three diverse submarine cable routes, more than 20 access points, and over 43,000km, the Southern Cross ecosystem will support high capacity and low latency routes between Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tokelau, Kiribati, Hawaii, and the United States West Coast.
The NEXT system will boost the capacity of the SCCN ecosystem by approximately 500 per cent, to around 100 Terabits/second. To put this in perspective, this would allow the transfer of 10 billion photos on Facebook in just over 300 seconds
HFC Bank is grateful for this opportunity. This venture has proven HFC Bank’s stability and resilience in the financial market by displaying its achievements and growth in the past few years. This has only been possible due to the trust and confidence the corporate customers have placed with HFC Bank.
“Being Fiji’s own Bank, we at HFC Bank are committed to provide convenient and reliable banking services that contributes towards the betterment of our country’s and of the pacific region’s future relating to telecommunications. As such, HFC Bank is always looking for ways to improve its service offerings and we aim to be Fiji’s Bank of choice by reaching out and ensuring that we can always be there for our customers when they need financial assistance”, Rakesh Ram, HFC Bank CEO.
“Our ability to efficiently and seamlessly execute this major technological funding project is a testimony of HFC Bank’s complete capability to effectively grow its corporate market segment”, Ram added.
“The NEXT cable will support FINTEL’s continuing mission to enable reliable connectivity between the people of Fiji and the Pacific Islands to the rest of the world. The NEXT cable will provide the first international submarine fibre connections to Tokelau and Kiribati and reinforces Fiji’s growing role as a digital hub for the Pacific Islands. Thirteen of our Pacific Island neighbours depend directly or indirectly to FINTEL & Fiji for their international telecommunications. With the inclusion of Savusavu, for the first time in over a century, provides Fiji’s second international access. The Southern Cross NEXT cable system will support the rising demand for bandwidth driven by cloud adoption and digitisation along with changing needs of customers and the industry”, George Samisoni, FINTEL CEO
“FINTEL is grateful for this partnership and acknowledges HFC’s efficiency, understanding and support to this project funding. FINTEL is also appreciative of the Fijian Government’s support in realising this national and regional telecommunications investment”, Samisoni added.