Pacific nations require efficient, resilient connectivity to the global digital highway to participate in e-commerce and provide the services to their nation which are obtainable elsewhere in the world. Traditionally, Pacific nations have relied upon satellite and microwave connections – which are fine for the plain telephone and text services – however satellites are both bandwidth-limited and vulnerable to adverse weather conditions – especially cyclones. It is therefore not surprising that in today’s bandwidth hungry era of internet and global cloud services – clouded by fears of global climate change challenges – that the emergence of fibre optic submarine cable solutions has been necessary.
Major construction and installation activities over the past decade have seen almost all Pacific island nations connected to the global internet by fibre optic submarine cable, the most recent of which are Tokelau and Kiribati. Of the 22 Pacific Island Nations – it is amazing to realise that only Nauru (development in process) and Tuvalu remain to be “cabled”.
Submarine cables, which carry several hair-like optical fibres and are only as thick as a garden hose, have a distinct advantage over satellite in that they provide abundant low-cost capacity. However, unlike satellite, submarine cables only operate between two points – they land at one point (typically the capital) and go under the ocean to another point (typically a global internet hub). They improve the international connectivity needs – and yet in that same process they intensify the requirement for improved domestic connections to enable the population to access the low latency, high quality service they afford.
As such, one of the key challenges for smaller nations such as in the Pacific is to exploit this glut of international capacity. This is best done through a combination of higher capacity connections from the cable landing point via the telecom operator to the customer and via the introduction of new applications made possible by the high capacity.
For many Pacific islands, the most common way for consumers to connect to the internet is through their mobile phone. However, many mobile phone networks were designed assuming the use of higher cost satellite connections and as such, operators seek to squeeze as much traffic as possible on the narrow pipes, which has an adverse effect on quality and makes response times slow. It is therefore imperative that the domestic access networks, whether mobile or wired, are upgraded to accommodate the surge in demand. Across the Pacific, when cables have been landed, we have seen demand increase between 2 and 6 times within just 3 months, with consequent reduction in costs to users.
Another significant opportunity to exploit the increased cable capacity is with new applications. For example, the provision of e-health services can improve the quality of life. With the extra capacity, for instance x-rays and MRIs can be done locally and if the interpretation skills are not available at the clinic, the results can be sent to say, NZ, Australia or Hawaii for evaluation, potentially avoiding the need for expensive travel overseas. Other applications include telework, where lawyers and accountants can operate in their own countries rather than needing to locate at their head office in another country.
One of the real success stories in the Pacific has been Palau where in just four years, the traffic demand has risen more than 20-fold and quality has gone from a slow, intermittent service to a fast continuous service, thanks to the combination of a submarine cable and an upgraded local connectivity network. This has enabled a transition to a digital economy which has served them well (particularly during the COVID period). In fact, they have become so dependent on the economic benefits that they are now well advanced on a second cable to provide back-up for their current umbilical cord. We have of course seen and heard of the consequences in Tonga when their sole international submarine cable broke following the volcanic eruption.
Submarine cables provide abundant high quality lower cost connections for countries enabling the economic development of industries as well as providing populations to have access to the same services available in larger countries. However, garnering these benefits depends on cooperation between the telecom carriers and the government service organisations to provide the network infrastructure and applications to exploit the capabilities of the cables.
Paul McCann and John Hibbard are independent consultants,
specialising in the strategic and commercial aspects
associated with the development and/or implementation of
submarine cable systems for Pacific Island Nations.
