 Country Data (including socio-economic demographics, Internet capacity, Government's use of the Internet)
 ccTLD Data (including Registry Operator, cost of domain registration, uniqueness of ccTLD)
 Internet Access Data (including cost of access, number of users and ISPs, method of Internet delivery and availability)

There currently is no one source of Internet statistical data (of the extent proposed by this project) available for the Pacific Islands. This project aims to become a central point of reference for such data, and to serve as a starting point to collate Internet-related data over time for the Pacific Islands. It is anticipated this will be an on-going project over the years and in the future will be able to provide a historical perspective of Internet growth and evolution in the Pacific Islands.


Background

The Pacific Islands are a disparate group of island countries which span some 35 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean geography. Some countries/states in this region have as few as 1200 people and some extend to a population of over 5 million people. Amongst the factors affecting ICT development in the region are the vast distances between remote communities, small commercial markets (with limited spending potential), lack of investment in ICT due to more attention by Governments to high-priority areas such as basic health care and education and human resource issues.

Even with such limitations, the region has done much with Internet and is also home to some unique domain names (for example .tv for "television" and .nu for “new”). The continuing proliferation of Internet cafes in urban areas is evidence of this, as is the reliance on this new medium by immigrant Pacific Islanders settled abroad to “keep in touch with home”. Where bandwidth is available, VoIP and Instant Messaging are also an increasing use for the Internet.

This project attempts to provide baseline Internet data for the Pacific Islands, and with support over time, could evolve into a historic record on the evolution of the Internet in the Pacific Islands. This should be of benefit to Island states within the Pacific, as well as for regional and international organisations, for planning and policy purposes. Within the Pacific, it will provide a comparative analysis of the state of the Internet amongst neighboring countries in the region. Internationally (i.e. outside the Pacific Islands) it will provide a snapshot of Internet in the Pacific Islands to interested Organisations and individuals. As an information tool, this project can be used to assist with related research (or input to) other fields and industries.

With support over time, the project could evolve into a historic record on the evolution of the Internet in the Pacific Islands. This could potentially be updated on a regular basis to provide a reference point to the overall state of the Internet in the Pacific Islands.



Countries/States/Territories Covered

American Samoa
Cook Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
French Polynesia
Guam
Kiribati
Marshall Islands
Nauru
New Caledonia
Niue
Northern Marianas
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Pitcairn
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tokelau
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Wallis and Futuna


Project Partners

This project evolved from an initial idea by Rajnesh Singh for the need to have a central repository of Internet data on the Pacific Islands, and the need to maintain a historical record of Internet development in the Pacific Islands.

The project is run under the banner of PacificIT.org and the partners in this project are:

 PATARA a leading Pacific Islands-based private commercial entity engaged in ICT services and solutions (and who have provided seed funding for the establishment of pacificIT.org as part of its contribution to the Internet community)
 ISOC The Internet Society is a professional membership society with more than 100 organization and over 20,000 individual members in over 180 countries. It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). ISOC provided financial support for this project through its Project Funding Initiative
 Rajnesh D. Singh Chairman of the Pacific Islands Chapter, Internet Society 2005-2007 and Director of pacificIT.org
 PICISOC The Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society

Project Research Office Location
310 Princes Road Tamavua Suva Fiji Islands

Primary Contact
Gunjan Singh
Tel: +44 870 068 4288 or +679 332 0606
Fax: +44 870 068 1019 or +679 332 0800

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