Analysis
A small island nation bets its future on undersea cables
With tourism volatile and fishing stocks falling, a Pacific archipelago wants to become a data hub. It all depends on a cable the width of a garden hose.
World affairs reporter
11 min read
The landing station for the new cable sits on the island’s northern coast.
The cable arrives on a beach most tourists never see: a narrow strip of sand behind a fishing cooperative, where a concrete hut now houses equipment worth more than the island’s annual education budget.
It will carry the country’s internet traffic, and, the government hopes, a new economy.
From fish to fibre
The plan is to attract data centres and remote-work programmes by offering fast connections, cheap renewable power and a stable legal system. Similar bets have paid off in Iceland and Ireland. They have also failed in places that could not guarantee reliable electricity.
The risks are not only commercial. A single cable is a single point of failure, and cables are cut more often than most people realise, by anchors, earthquakes and, occasionally, by design.
“We are small. That is our weakness and our argument. Small places can move fast,” the digital economy minister said.
A second cable
Negotiations for a second, redundant cable are under way with two competing consortia. Which one wins may tell us more about the island’s geopolitical alignment than any speech at the United Nations.
Amara Diallo
World affairs reporter
Amara reports on trade, borders and the places the world economy passes through.
