DoCoMo Plans new Fiber Submarine Cable Line for Guam

DoCoMo Pacific wants to put in a new submarine cable system connecting Guam with the Commonwealth of the North Mariana islands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian. In an FCC International Bureau filing Monday, DoCoMo said the Atisa system -- Atisa meaning "to brighten" or "to increase" in the Chamorro language native to Guam and Commonwealth islands -- will be run on a non-common-carrier basis, with its capacity to be used by DoCoMo retail and enterprise customers. It also said it expects to start commercial operation of the Atisa system in Q2 2017, and FCC grant of a cable landing license by December 2016 is "of paramount importance." Atisa will avoid the Tinian Channel where the Mariana-Guam Cable was severed in July, leading to "a nearly-total communications blackout" in the Commonwealth islands, and instead will go directly between Guam and Saipan in deeper water, said DoCoMo, a subsidiary of Japan's NTT DoCoMo.