Abstract
In the Pacific islands, public services such as medical care and education are not sufficiently provided to all residents. However, ICT can enable them to enjoy such services even in isolated islands dotted over a wide area and will bring about development in the region, but because the adverse geographical conditions hinder the bridging of the digital-divide, especially in terms of broadband, there are few examples of successful implementation. With regard to the current situation of the main communication services in the Pacific islands, although mobile phone penetration rates are increasing the broadband penetration rate is still low in the region due to the high tariff rates.
Core ICT networks form a bottleneck. The two network technologies are: satellite technology, which has limited capacity with a high usage fee but can cover a wide area, and undersea cable technology, which has broad capacity but cannot cover a wide area, has high installation costs. In recent years, Kuband satellite communication with small sized and power-saving technology, has become available in this region in addition to the existing C-band satellites. Considering the characteristics of media application and the analysis of a field survey, a solution to the development of the Pacific islands network is provided by the network architecture established for distance learning at the University of the South Pacific, utilizing an undersea cable network between extra-regional countries and the few main Pacific islands, C-band satellite networks between the main Pacific islands, and Ku-band satellite networks for other remote areas.
