A report by Maureen Hilyard

The two breakout sessions that I attended, following these formal presentations were on Climate Change and Digital Inclusion. 

The session was on climate change and how the various organisations in NZ could help to minimise carbon emission levels. I congratulated them on what they were attempting to do to help mitigate the ultimate impact of climate change on our small island environments in the Cook Islands, as protectorates of New Zealand, as well as other islands in the Pacific.

At the Digital Inclusion session, my intervention related to how CIIAG (the Cook Islands Internet Action Group) has helped to support the digital needs of the growing population trend of elderly across the Cook Islands. While NZ may offer many opportunities to cater for the social and healthy well-being of their elderly,  I explained that this was not so true in the Cook Islands. I described CIIAG’s project with the support of USP and funded by NZAid, to address the strong need for the elderly to gain confidence and skills to help them communicate with family and friends who live overseas, as well as to help them overcome their feelings of loneliness and isolation.  They were provided with free lessons on Mangaia to increase their skills with digital technology – mainly the use of gmail and Facebook as well as texting on their mobiles.  CIIAG also purchased a couple of computers and other equipment, from funding from the NZ High Commission to establish the first telecentre in the Cook Islands at the local community centre on Mangaia, mainly for the use of their elderly and disabled members. Both sessions were very appreciative of the addition of a Pacific Island perspective to their discussions.

Following this second session, I met up with Laurence Zwimpfer. Laurence ran the New Zealand end of (and raised the funding for) our eDay in 2010 that Pua Hunter and I coordinated,  to gather all our e-Waste on Rarotonga and send it to NZ. It was the first ever e-waste collection of its kind in the Pacific. And then the NZ government pulled the plug on eDays in preference for regional recycling centres. Today Laurence is the Chairman of the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa which involves 160 libraries in New Zealand who are connected by their interest in digital inclusion for marginalised groups particularly schools, rural communities (our outer islands), as well as the elderly and disabled. Because of our connection in the past, Laurence has invited the Cook Islands Internet Action Group to become a partner organisation of the NZ Digital Inclusion Alliance group. Because it involves working with communities, the Alliance delivers its activity reports through their local libraries which generally provide a venue for free local training or support groups associated with Alliance activities. 

The final plenary of the day was a panel who discussed “The Internet after Christchurch”. The various speakers contributed their views about what changed after Christchurch, and what else needs to be done to ensure this does not happen again.

As appears on FBC news site

The reduction of charges for the FINTEL cable from $40,000 to $640 has enabled healthy competition within the ICT sector.

Information and communications technology in the Pacific is delivering better connectivity as data rates show a significant drop over the years.

World Bank Digital Development Specialist Shivnesh Prasad says that lower costs are increasing the number of internet users.

“The reduction in data rates is a welcomed sign for the industry. As services become more affordable the uptake of services increases and this works well for the sector. The cheaper, the more affordable the services are the more people are coming online”

Fiji was one of the countries in the region to adopt the use of the Southern Cross cable which has contributed to a dynamic ICT sector.

We’re one of those countries in the region that were one of the first to have that and you can see that that has translated to be a very dynamic ICT sector, very competitive ICT sector where cost of calls and data rates are very competitive.”

Prasad adds the Government is taking a lead role in the ICT revolution by providing its services online.

Source: FBC News

As appears on Business Wire News Update

Southern Cross NEXT cable announces Contract in Force with Ready for Service of December 2021-January 2022

SYDNEY & WELLINGTON, New Zealand & LONDON & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) and Pioneer Consulting are pleased to announce that the Southern Cross NEXT project has achieved CIF (Contract in Force) and has entered the construction project phase.

“The achievement of CIF is a testament to the hard work of the combined Southern Cross and Pioneer Consulting team over many months and is a validation of the technology and expertise behind the new cable,” said Southern Cross President and CEO, Laurie Miller. “The addition of the Southern Cross NEXT route to our platform will provide existing and future customers with further resiliency and connectivity options between Australia, New Zealand and the United States.”

“From our initial guidance on the network’s overall design and technical specifications, to providing commercial and procurement support, we are delighted to continue to work with Southern Cross on the next phase of this robust network through to system in service,” said Pioneer Consulting Managing Partner, Keith Schofield.

Southern Cross NEXT will be the largest capacity link providing data-centre connectivity between Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles. Given its robust design and route including branches, the 16,148km cable system will provide the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to the United States. The new route will also provide critical international cable connectivity to the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati.

“We can now firmly focus on the implementation and deployment of the NEXT system which promises to bring greater resiliency, redundancy and capacity to our extensive network, along with the ongoing development of product enhancements to meet the evolving requirements of our customers,” said Southern Cross CTO, Dean Veverka.

The Southern Cross NEXT system has been designed and developed to be an extension of the existing Southern Cross two-cable ecosystem and will allow customers to leverage Southern Cross’ extensive point-of-presence network and access infrastructure already in place. It will also enable Southern Cross NEXT customers to flexibly assign new and existing capacity across the Pacific’s three routes, maximising diversity and resiliency.

Southern Cross NEXT is the result of a network investment of around US$300 million by Southern Cross, and is designed to carry 72 terabits per second of traffic – roughly the equivalent of simultaneously streaming 4.6 million ultra-high definition movies – ensuring Southern Cross can cater for its customers’ growing data requirements well into the future.

Services offered on the new system will be an extension and integration of the services offered across the current Southern Cross platform. The construction is being funded by a combination of capacity payments, equity contributions and financing.

With significant work already completed including pre-sales, marine survey, landing arrangements, Pacific Island agreements, detail design and the cable RFT, the Southern Cross NEXT project is well positioned to meet its target completion date of end 2021-early 2022.

About Southern Cross
Southern Cross Cable Network provides fast, direct, and secure international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the heart of the Internet in the USA. The Southern Cross Cable Network comprises two submarine communications cables which were first commissioned in November 2000 and January 2001. They provide Australasian broadband users with high speed, resilient international connections to the US West coast where global Internet hubs are located. The Southern Cross Cable Network is currently owned by Spark NZ, Singtel/Optus, Verizon Business and Telstra. Southern Cross Cable Network has offices in Bermuda, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington. For more information visit Southern Cross at https://www.southerncrosscables.com/.

About Pioneer Consulting
Pioneer Consulting offers a comprehensive set of services for the submarine fibre optic telecommunication system industry including turnkey project management, financial and technical due diligence, engineering and implementation and market and technical studies. For further information about Pioneer Consulting visit https://www.pioneerconsulting.com or send an e-mail to: info@pioneerconsulting.com.

Jonathan Brewer designs and builds wireless networks for broadband, utilities, public safety, and the Internet of Things throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

He has done incredible research in policy development on topics including network interconnectivity, radio spectrum, and universal access in developed and developing markets.

Check out the awesome website that he has built which highlights the telecommunications environment of the Pacific Islands. It looks at each community’s connectivity to the world: telecommunications, sea freight, air routes, and trade.

It provides real-time statistics on provider market share. And in a composite case study, it considers the complexity of island telecommunications through the mythical nation of Avaiki.

Find out more here: https://connectedpacific.org/