Commercialising a new submarine cable in Pacific Island countries requires a coordinated approach that goes beyond technical deployment. To deliver service successfully, the cable must be supported by a clear business plan, an appropriate ownership and operating model, a credible financial and demand case, and an organisation with the technical and management capability to run the asset effectively. Interconnection arrangements at both the domestic and international ends of the system are equally important, as they determine whether the cable can deliver affordable, resilient, and competitive connectivity to the market. In these environments, commercial success depends not only on infrastructure readiness, but on the ability to align policy, finance, operations, and market access into a sustainable service model.
1. Business Plan
A robust business plan is the foundation of commercialisation. It should define the purpose of the cable, the target customer segments, the expected role of the cable assets in the national connectivity strategy, and the pathway to financial sustainability. In small and developing countries, the business plan should also address market concentration, affordability objectives, the role of government or development finance, and the need for open access or wholesale competition. The plan should explain who will buy capacity, why they will prefer the new system over existing and emerging alternatives, and how the operator will manage risk over the cable’s life.
A comprehensive Business Plan needs to address the following aspects:
1.1. Commercial Options Model
The Business Plan needs to address the most appropriate commercial operating model for the cable system. The Commercial Model sets out how the cable will be owned, operated, and sold into the market. Common options include a fully private operator model, a consortium model, a public-private partnership, or an open-access wholesale vehicle. Industry experience shows that newer systems increasingly use private or condominium-style structures to support more flexible capacity ownership and monetisation, while open-access approaches can be particularly important in smaller markets where competition and fair access are policy priorities. The right model depends on national policy, investor appetite, market size, and the strategic importance of the cable to the country’s digital development.
1.2. Financial Model
The financial model should translate the project into a realistic view of capital needs, operating costs, expected revenues, and the time required to reach break-even. It should test multiple scenarios, including slower demand growth, lower-than-expected pricing, foreign exchange exposure, repair costs, backhaul constraints, and delays in landing or licensing. Bankability depends on more than projected revenue: investors and lenders typically look for a credible demand story, clear regulatory pathways, appropriate risk allocation, and evidence that the project can monetise capacity over time. In developing markets, the model may also need to account for concessional finance, anchor tenancy, donor participation, or sovereign support. Additionally, one of the big issues for small island states such as in the Pacific, is the demand is far less than the capacity that the cable can provide, meaning it is probably unlikely that the cable will be fully utilised until several decades after installation. Since it will be commissioned with only several 100G waves equipped and lit, the subsequent upgrades may see the existing Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) model being no longer available possibly necessitating not just new wavelength cards but replacement of existing the entire SLTE for compatibility adding to the capital cost of the system. Capital expenditure associated with upgrades should be factored into financial modelling.
1.3. Demand Forecast
A credible demand forecast is essential because it underpins both the commercial case and the financing case. The forecast should estimate future international bandwidth needs across key customer groups such as mobile operators, internet service providers, governments, enterprises, data centres, and regional transit users. It should assess current demand, expected traffic growth, pricing trends, the likely migration from satellite or older cable systems, and the strategic value of resilience and route diversity. Competition from emerging technologies such as Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems.
The smaller capacity demands of island countries, particularly across the Pacific, heighten the need for careful and realistic demand forecasting. In many cases, national populations are small, communities are geographically dispersed, GDP per head is low, and the total addressable market for telecommunications services is limited. This means that even modest changes in user behaviour, pricing, service availability, or government policy can materially affect projected traffic volumes. Forecasts therefore need to be built from conservative assumptions, clear sensitivity testing, and a close understanding of local conditions rather than relying only on growth patterns observed in larger markets.
Demand forecasting is further complicated by the emergence of new connectivity technologies and alternative delivery models. The most relevant current example is the growing availability of LEO satellite services, which may provide a complementary layer of connectivity for remote islands, outer communities, emergency response and network resilience. While submarine fibre cables are still generally expected to remain the backbone for high-capacity, long-term connectivity across the Pacific, LEO services can change the demand profile by diverting some traffic away from terrestrial networks, stimulating new demand in previously underserved areas, or creating hybrid models in which fibre, mobile and satellite services coexist.
1.4 Staffing and Organisation
The operating organisation must be able to manage the cable as a critical national infrastructure asset as well as a commercial platform. That means establishing clear accountabilities across network operations, sales, finance, regulatory engagement, customer support, security, and vendor management. In small and developing countries, the organisation needs to be lean, but it still requires enough depth to work effectively with external specialists, manage outages and repairs, administer access agreements, and maintain confidence among customers and government stakeholders. One approach can be to bring in an experienced overseas executive as the CEO of the cable company, but the cost can be high if a suitable person can be found. A practical model which combines a compact local core team with outsourced specialist support in areas where local capacity is limited can achieve the same benefits or possibly more at a lower cost.
1.4. Technical Expertise
Technical capability is required across the full lifecycle of the system: landing station operations, power feed and terminal equipment management, backhaul integration, network monitoring, fault escalation, maintenance coordination, and physical security. Cable landing stations typically house cable termination equipment, power feeding equipment, and submarine line terminal equipment, all of which must be operated reliably and integrated with terrestrial networks or data centres. The operator also needs access to specialist engineering support for route protection, repair coordination, and resilience planning.
Where local skills are scarce, training programmes, managed services, and long-term support agreements become critical to operational readiness. It is often the case in the Pacific Region, that when local staff are trained and become adept in their cable station roles, they become attractive candidates for larger and more senior positions within the country or internationally, making succession planning extremely important. This creates an ongoing need to maintain a pipeline of trained personnel, document operational procedures, and ensure that knowledge is not concentrated in only one or two individuals. On the other hand, the limited availability of in-country skills required to provide a fully functional, 24 x 7 Network Operations Centre (NOC) often means that this critical function needs to be outsourced to a suitably qualified third party located in another country. Marine maintenance is another specialist area that is usually outsourced.
1.5. Management Expertise
Management capability is just as important as technical knowledge. Leaders must be able to make sound decisions on pricing, partnerships, regulatory compliance, procurement, risk management, and long-term investment priorities. Because submarine cable projects span multiple jurisdictions and involve complex stakeholders, the management team also needs experience in contract negotiation, governance, and cross-border coordination. In smaller markets, strong management helps ensure that the project is not treated only as an engineering asset, but as a strategic utility that must remain financially viable and responsive to national connectivity goals.
In many island nations, it can be difficult to recruit suitably experienced CEOs locally, while offshore appointments are costly and can involve frequent absences for home travel. A practical approach is to develop local talent with targeted support from external C-level expertise. This support can guide local management on strategy, planning, operations and commercial matters, while helping identify and prepare local personnel for future leadership. Succession planning should therefore be a clear priority, with handover to local or Pacific-based management expected within a defined period.
2. Interconnect Arrangements
Commercial service cannot begin unless the cable is effectively connected into the wider communications ecosystem. Interconnect arrangements cover the physical, technical, commercial, and regulatory conditions under which the cable links to domestic and international networks. These arrangements should include landing station access, backhaul to points of presence and data centres, cross-connect pricing, service level commitments, operational processes, and rules for fair and non-discriminatory access where applicable. In developing markets, interconnection policy can strongly influence whether the new cable delivers lower prices, better resilience, and broader market participation.
2.1. Near End
Near-end arrangements relate to the landing country itself. They include licensing, landing rights, beach manhole and landing station readiness, domestic backhaul, power supply, site security, access processes for customers, and integration with national terrestrial networks. If the landing station is not carrier-neutral or if backhaul is restricted or overpriced, the benefits of the cable may not flow through to the market. For small and developing countries, near-end success often depends on getting the regulatory and access model right as much as getting the technology right. On occasions, small island states such as in the Pacific have a have a single government owned wholesale carrier and it can lead to a government wishing to protect that carrier when it might be better for the market to be more open to encourage better retail competition.
2.1.1. Far End
Far-end arrangements concern the cable’s international connection point and the commercial environment on the other side of the route. This includes onward connectivity to major hubs, peering or transit options, colocation, access to carrier-neutral facilities, and commercial agreements that allow capacity to be handed over efficiently to international customers or partners. A strong far-end strategy improves route attractiveness, reduces dependency on a single gateway, and increases the likelihood that the cable will support both domestic needs and wider regional connectivity objectives. Negotiating far end arrangements requires considerable expertise, something that is often foreign to small island states and can lead to inferior commercial arrangements which significantly impact the financial performance of the cable company and limits the ability to offer lower wholesale prices.
3. Closing Remarks
Bringing a new submarine cable into commercial service in the Pacific islands requires more than technical completion of the system. It requires the cable to be positioned as both critical national infrastructure and a long-term regional connectivity asset, supported by realistic demand forecasts, a sustainable financial model, practical operating arrangements, and interconnection terms that allow the benefits of the investment to flow through to the market. In the Pacific context, those issues are sharpened by small populations, dispersed communities, limited in-country specialist skills, exposure to natural disasters, and the continuing need to balance affordability, resilience, competition and national strategic interests.
For many island nations, the commercial challenge is not simply to light the cable, but to ensure that it can be operated, marketed, upgraded and governed in a way that remains viable over decades. Demand may build slowly, capacity may substantially exceed near-term requirements, and future upgrades may introduce costs that are not obvious at commissioning. At the same time, local staffing models, succession planning, outsourced NOC and marine maintenance arrangements, near-end access, far-end capacity handover, and wholesale pricing all have a direct bearing on whether the cable delivers lower prices, improved service quality and genuine resilience for governments, businesses and communities.
The essential lesson is that service readiness must be treated as a regional, commercial and institutional task, not only an engineering milestone. A Pacific cable project will succeed when the business plan, governance model, technical capability, management support and interconnection framework are developed together, with enough flexibility to respond to changing technologies, market conditions and national priorities. If these elements are aligned, a new submarine cable can become more than a new route to the internet; it can become a platform for digital inclusion, economic participation, public service delivery and long-term regional resilience.
