Island left in lurch on fibre

cost of $100,000. One or two were likely to go to Tokelau, but they would not be as useful there because of the lack of affordable, fast broadband for remote monitoring, he said.

‘‘You really need someone with more training ... to monitor the temperatures and airflows.’’

Hawaiki Cable announced yesterday that it had completed the construction of its $500 million submarine cable connecting New Zealand, Australia and the United States. It is now being tested and should be ready for service by the end of June.

Galasso said the Aucklandbased firm offered to build-in a branching unit for Tokelau before it began manufacturing the 15,000-kilometre cable in 2016, but MFAT had blocked that idea.

The ministry is instead banking on Tokelau connecting to a different cable called Next, proposed by the Southern Cross Cable Network, which is majority owned by Spark and Singaporean telecoms company SingTel.

Expectations that the Next cable will be built any time soon appear to be receding, however.

A document obtained by shows Southern Cross was due to complete an agreement to build Next by last December, and have the cable ready for service by the end of next year.

But the December deadline has been missed and Spark managing director Simon Moutter said Southern Cross shareholders had yet to reach an agreement on who would pay for the cable.

Moutter ruled out Spark fully funding the Next cable in the event that it failed to reach an agreement with its fellow shareholders in Southern Cross.

‘‘I don’t think there is any case for Spark to build another US cable on our own.’’

An MFAT spokesman denied the ministry had backed the wrong horse.

‘‘The Southern Cross Next cable option presented the best economic case for connectivity for Tokelau, passing within 48km of Nukunonu atoll. We still believe this to be the case and we are not evaluating other options at this time,’’ she said.

MFAT said it was aware that the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau was approached by Hawaiki to connect to its cable system, but said that was ‘‘prior to our engagement Hawaiki Cable chief executive Remi Galasso, above on this issue with Tokelau’’.

Galasso said that was misleading. He said he met the MFAT official responsible for administering Tokelau, Jonathan Kings, in 2016 and made it clear that Hawaiki could put in the branching unit.

‘‘The feedback we had at that time from MFAT was that satellite connectivity was good enough for Tokelau ... We have missed a superb opportunity to connect that population.’’

Heto Puka, an official formerly employed by the council, confirmed it had paid Hawaiki a $2m deposit for a branching unit in 2016, but had been instructed by MFAT to seek a refund, which it received.

Puka said he and a former Tokelau government chief adviser were taking legal action in Wellington against the council, and against Kings personally, after they were sacked last year.

Puka said he was ‘‘very surprised’’ that MFAT approved a connection to Next last year.

‘‘The chain of events and subsequent change of attitude from New Zealand probably raises questions around the sincerity from MFAT officials.’’