From Submarine Cables to Starlink: Marshall Islands Internet Connectivity in 2025
The HANTRU-1 cable is 2,917 km long with a 160 Gbps design capacity, extended to Majuro and Kwajalein/Ebeye in 2010, linking to a Pohnpei hub and onward to Guam. A 2017 HANTRU-1 cable fault caused a nationwide 3-week outage, forcing a 97% bandwidth cut as the islands relied on limited satellite links. The East Micronesia Cable (EMC) project, funded by Japan, Australia, and the US, connects Kosrae (FSM) and Tarawa (Kiribati) to Pohnpei and HANTRU-1, with completion expected around 2025–26 and improved resilience. The Central Pacific Cable (CPC) is a 15,900 km subsea link from Guam to American Samoa with