East Micronesia Cable completes Pacific Islands Forum submarine cable coverage

The East Micronesia Cable System became operational in 2026 and brings Nauru, Tarawa Atoll in Kiribati and Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia onto an international submarine cable for the first time, Innovando News reported. The report said its completion means all members of the Pacific Islands Forum are now connected to the global submarine cable network.

The network runs approximately 2.250 kilometres, in the report's notation, and was developed by six countries: the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Australia, Japan and the United States. The project is valued at about 135 million Australian dollars, of which about 65 million came from the Australian Government through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific. It is intended to improve internet access for over 100.000 people, a figure the report described as the population potentially eligible rather than certified new subscribers.

Until now the three islands relied mainly on satellite links for external connectivity. Innovando noted fibre can offer lower latency and higher aggregate capacity than geostationary satellites, but said the comparison is less clear-cut with low-earth orbit constellations. It said the cable does not make satellites redundant and instead adds a complementary connection method.

Australian ministers Penny Wong and Pat Conroy announced the completion on 1 September 2026, and the project was later presented at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders' meeting in Palau. The report said Canberra has allocated over 500 million Australian dollars to submarine connectivity in the Pacific and East Timor since 2018, and that the program has contributed to over 10.300 kilometres of new cable across nine countries.

Other recent systems follow different priorities. Tuvalu's Vaka Cable became operational in October 2025 as the country's first international undersea connection, at an estimated cost of about 56 million US dollars, or about AUD$80 million by the AIFFP's valuation. In Tonga, the Tu'i Vava'u Cable has operated since May 2026 as a second international link, after the main cable was out of service for over five weeks following the January 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption.

Innovando cautioned that a second cable does not guarantee against interruptions, because route separation, landing points and power systems determine real redundancy. It also said benefits for health, education and business depend on terrestrial networks, mobile infrastructure and operator investment to carry traffic from landing stations to users. Further international connections are also of interest for Papua New Guinea, Palau and the Solomon Islands.