Tuasivi, Samoa

How the Internet Reaches Tuasivi

Tuasivi is a village on the north-east coast of Savai'i, Samoa's largest island, sitting in the South Pacific Ocean. Its position on the Samoan archipelago places it at the western edge of a regional submarine cable network that links the Pacific islands of Samoa, Fiji, and Wallis and Futuna. International internet traffic reaches Tuasivi through a direct submarine cable landing on this stretch of Savai'i's coastline.

Tuasivi is one of only two submarine cable landing points in Samoa, making it a significant terminus in a small national cable footprint. All international traffic entering or leaving Tuasivi travels via the single cable that comes ashore here, connecting the village directly into the broader Pacific regional network.

The Cable Serving Tuasivi

The Tui-Samoa cable is the sole submarine cable landing at Tuasivi. Running 1,693 km across the South Pacific, it entered service in 2018 and links Samoa to Fiji and Wallis and Futuna. Along its route, the cable touches five landing points in total: Tuasivi and Apia on the Samoan side, Leava and Mata-Utu in Wallis and Futuna, and Savusavu and Suva in Fiji. Internet packets leaving Tuasivi therefore travel along this cable toward Suva or Savusavu in Fiji, or to the Wallis and Futuna island group, before onward routing connects them to the wider global internet.

Regional Context

Samoa as a whole is served by just two submarine cables landing across two points in the country. The first cable entered service in 2018, and the average cable length across Samoa's infrastructure is 2,340 km. Tuasivi's fellow landing point, Apia on the island of Upolu, hosts both of Samoa's cables, making it the more connected of the two national landing points. Tuasivi, by contrast, is served exclusively by the Tui-Samoa cable, functioning as a secondary terminus on Savai'i rather than a central hub.

What This Means for Connectivity

Because Tuasivi is served by a single submarine cable, all international internet traffic flowing through this landing point depends entirely on the Tui-Samoa cable. Any disruption to that cable would sever the direct international connection at this point. The destinations reachable via this cable are regional — Fiji and Wallis and Futuna — meaning that traffic bound for Europe, North America, or Asia must pass through onward routing at those intermediate hubs, particularly Suva in Fiji, which serves as a major Pacific transit point.

Understanding Tuasivi's position in this network illustrates how smaller island communities in the Pacific depend on single-cable connections to regional hubs for all external internet access, and how the Pacific cable map is built from a series of inter-island links rather than direct long-haul routes.