Landing Point · WS Samoa
| Cable | Status |
|---|---|
| Manatua | Active |
| Tui-Samoa | Active |
RTT measurements to this landing point from 2026-03-06 through 2026-05-23 — live ICMP round-trip time via RIPE Atlas probes. Recomputed daily. ✓ No anomalies detected in the monitored period.
| Probe | Location | Samples | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| #52614 | RIPE Atlas | 100 | 410.2 ms |
| #1014473 own probe | Minsk BY | 5 | 385.3 ms |
| #1014589 own probe | Almaty KZ | 5 | 457.5 ms |
| #1014597 own probe | Tbilisi GE | 5 | 381.1 ms |
| #1014969 own probe | Jerusalem IL | 4 | 391.9 ms |
| #30712 | RIPE Atlas | 3 | 400.2 ms |
| #1015523 own probe | Moscow RU | 2 | 413.2 ms |
| #1015563 own probe | Saint Petersburg RU | 2 | 385.5 ms |
Apia is the capital of Samoa and sits on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island, at coordinates 13.833676°S, 171.766684°W. As a remote Pacific island nation, Samoa depends entirely on submarine cables for international internet and voice connectivity — there is no terrestrial alternative across the Pacific. Three submarine cables land at Apia, connecting the country eastward to American Samoa, southward via Fiji to Australasian backbones, and across the central Pacific to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.
The cables landing at Apia link Samoa not only to its larger neighbours but also serve as a hub redistributing transit between smaller Pacific island states. The Manatua and Tui-Samoa systems give Samoa relevance as a regional landing point — both cables aggregate traffic from neighbouring small island jurisdictions whose stand-alone cables to mainland landings would be uneconomic.
Manatua is a 3,634 km submarine cable system in service since 2020, owned by a consortium of Avaroa Cable Ltd., OPT French Polynesia, the Samoa Submarine Cable Company, and Telecom Niue. From Apia, Manatua reaches Aitutaki and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, Toahotu and Vaitape in French Polynesia, and Alofi in Niue — a deliberately central-Pacific spine connecting island states that previously relied on slower, indirect routes.
Tui-Samoa is a 1,693 km submarine cable in service since 2018, owned by the Samoa Submarine Cable Company. From Apia it reaches Tuasivi within Samoa, Savusavu and Suva in Fiji (where it connects to onward Pacific cables), and Leava and Mata-Utu in Wallis and Futuna. Tui-Samoa was the first major modern fibre cable to give Samoa direct fibre-optic connectivity to Fiji and onward to the wider Pacific cable network.
Samoa-American Samoa (SAS) is a 250 km submarine cable in service since 2009, jointly owned by the American Samoa Government and Elandia. It is a dedicated short link between Apia and Pago Pago in American Samoa, providing diverse direct connectivity between the two Samoan jurisdictions and extending traffic eastward toward the Hawaii cable interchange via American Samoa cable systems.
Apia has three independent landings reaching three different Pacific destinations: Manatua reaches the central Pacific (Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue), Tui-Samoa reaches Fiji and Wallis and Futuna, and SAS reaches American Samoa. This three-direction redundancy means a fault on any one cable does not isolate Samoa from international connectivity — traffic reroutes via the remaining systems. The owner mix is also diverse: the Samoa Submarine Cable Company owns Tui-Samoa solely and co-owns Manatua, while SAS sits under American Samoan ownership and Elandia.
The trade-off is that Apia is downstream of larger transit cables: long-haul intercontinental traffic still depends on onward connectivity through Fiji (via Tui-Samoa onto Southern Cross or other systems) or through American Samoa toward Hawaii. Apia is a regional hub for Polynesian cable redistribution rather than a primary transit chokepoint, and outage scenarios on the upstream Fiji or American Samoa hubs cascade to Samoan international connectivity.
The Apia submarine cable landing sits at 13.833676°S, 171.766684°W (13°50'01"S, 171°46'00"W) on the central north coast of Upolu island within the Tuamasaga political district of Samoa. The position on the leeward (north) side of Upolu provides protected approaches for cable shore-end deployment, away from the heavier south-Pacific swells that strike Upolu's southern coast.
Three submarine cables land at Apia: Manatua (central Pacific, RFS 2020), Tui-Samoa (Fiji and Wallis and Futuna, RFS 2018), and Samoa-American Samoa SAS (Pago Pago, RFS 2009). Together they give Samoa diverse connectivity to Pacific neighbours and onward backbones.
The Apia cable landing is at 13.833676°S, 171.766684°W (13°50'01"S, 171°46'00"W), on the central north coast of Upolu island in Samoa.
From Apia, Samoa connects to American Samoa via SAS; to Fiji and Wallis and Futuna via Tui-Samoa; and to the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and Niue via Manatua. Onward routing through Fiji and American Samoa reaches the wider Pacific cable network including Australasia and Hawaii.
The earliest fibre-optic submarine cable at Apia in the GeoCables dataset is Samoa-American Samoa (SAS), in service since 2009. Tui-Samoa followed in 2018 and Manatua in 2020, expanding Samoa's connectivity from a single short-haul link to a three-cable Pacific hub.
The Samoa Submarine Cable Company owns Tui-Samoa and co-owns Manatua. Manatua's other co-owners are Avaroa Cable Ltd., OPT French Polynesia, and Telecom Niue. SAS is jointly owned by the American Samoa Government and Elandia.
View actual submarine cable routing from Apia, Samoa — with backbone nodes, distance calculations, and latency estimates
Open Calculator →