From Submarine Cables to Starlink: Marshall Islands Internet Connectivity in 2025
The Marshall Islands’ internet backbone rests on a single submarine fiber-optic cable. In 2010, the HANTRU-1 undersea cable was extended to Majuro and Kwajalein/Ebeye Atolls, linking the country to a hub in Pohnpei and onward to Guam dig.watch itu.int. This 2,917 km cable replaced sole reliance on satellites and dramatically improved bandwidth to the capital dig.watch subtelforum.com. However, with only one international cable, connectivity is fragile – a 2017 cable fault caused a nationwide 3-week outage that forced a 97% bandwidth cut as the islands fell back to limited satellite links subtelforum.com subtelforum.com. This highlighted the vulnerability of having “one lifeline” cable. Plans are now in motion to boost resilience: the Marshall Islands is set to benefit from the proposed Central Pacific Cable, a 15,900 km subsea network that will connect Guam to American Samoa and branch into up to 12 Pacific nations including the Marshall Islands dig.watch ustda.gov. When realized, this new cable – along with a recently revived East Micronesia Cable project for nearby FSM, Nauru, and Kiribati – will provide much-needed alternate routes and capacity in the late 2020s reuters.com ustda.gov.
