World’s longest fiber-optic cable may land on North Coast

The world’s longest fiber-optic telecommunications cable, which would link the mainland U.S. directly to Southeast Asia, could be headed for Eureka’s front porch.

Asia Times recently reported that the roughly 10,000 milelong cable will strand from Singapore to Eureka and make landfall somewhere along the Samoa Peninsula.

Asia Times reported that developer Trans Pacific Networks will be laying the cable.

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District’s Board of Commissioners Thursday closed-session agenda included mention of negotiations with TPN regarding, “Terms of potential lease of real property on the Samoa Peninsula.”

The board did not report out of Thursday’s closed session, indicating no deal with TPN had been reached.

The parcel up for negotiation is listed as “general commercial under construction.”

Reached by phone Thursday, Harbor District Executive Director Larry Oetker said he could not confirm any details of the project other than that the HBHD has been interested in securing a cable landing for a number of years.

“We are interested in bringing living wage jobs to the county,” Oetker said. “Something of this nature would open the door for high-tech and data-driven business to come here … . We want to bring jobs here that will make the youth want to stay here … . These telecommunication jobs are clean, green jobs for the future.”

Oetker added that, generally speaking, the Samoa Peninsula’s geographic relation to Southeast Asia, i.e. being one of the closest coastal points in mainland U.S., makes it a logical landing point for a cable.

Inyo Networks, a fiber-optic cable installation company which would be necessary to connect the TPN line to other ground lines in the area, was also listed as one of the negotiating parties.

Inyo Networks notably led the Digital 299 Project, a 170-mile fiber-optic cable that connects Eureka to the Redding/Cottonwood area.

The Digital 299 project provides increased network

capability for some of the more rural regions of the North Coast.

The cable TPN is proposing would dwarf it in scope.

Access Humboldt’s executive director Sean McLaughlin said having a cable of the nature TPN is proposing would “connect Humboldt County to the rest of the world.

“What we need today are more connective routes into the county. Think of the cable as a bridge that

would give every provider who comes into Humboldt the connection they want. Think about having Humboldt as a high-speed hub of the future — as a knowledge base for health, business, all those services that which require high-quality networks.”

McLaughlin said having a major increase to network capability in the county would allow for more competition among service providers and theoretically better prices and product for consumers.

“It would make Eureka a world-class network destination,” McLaughlin said. “You could imagine Google or one of these tech giants opening offices here.”

McLaughlin said aside from a sheer network uplift, the cable is a piece of infrastructure which residents should take an interest in.

“When the providers come, they will all benefit from this,” he said. “If they had found a way to do this without public agency it would already be done and we would have had no say in it. The public should let harbor district know that they appreciate this asset and that it’s something which can be leveraged to really help the county economically.”