Broadband Palau

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Broadband Palau

• Presentation by
• Ashman Sato
• Palau National Communications

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Background on Palau

• The Republic of Palau, with a population of about
  20,000, is located 2000 mile south of Tokyo and
  is in the same time zone.
• Palau consists of 300 Beautiful islands
• From 1913 until 1945 Palau was a under Japanese
  rule
• Palau became a UN Trust Territory administered by
  the United Sates in 1994.
• Since 1994, Palau has been independent, but
  remains closely associated with the U.S. under a
  Compact of Free Association with the United
  States.

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Palaus Existing Infrastructure

• Commercial Power available in all population
  centers
• Fiber-optic cable to most areas of Palau
• Fiber-optic cable also carries CATV and connects
  cellular towers
• Microwave to islands that are outside reef
• Radio telephone to distant islands
• Single Earth Station
• Digital Cellular Service (GSM 800)

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Fiber Optic Cable and Landings
Babeldaob
Koror
Peleliu
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Microwave connections
Babeldaob
Kayangel
Angaur
Koror
Peleliu
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Palaus Planned InfrastructureDomestic

• Redundant Earth Station for reliability
• Upgrade of Distribution system to allow
  high-speed service for Schools, Health,
  Government and Community
• Large Object Cache Mirror site

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Airai
Meyuns
Satellite Stations Meyuns and Airai
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• WANs Ethernet services
• Portals
• Health
• Education
• Government
• Rural Telecenters

Rural Telecenters
Education
Health Facilities Hospital Dispensary Stations
New Capital Melekeok
Government Operations
Meyuns
Koror
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Forming A Shared Vision For Palau

• Communications Information Technology Technical
  Advisory Group (CITAG) established by the
  President of the Republic of Palau
• Membership includes all stakeholders
• Government
• Education
• Health
• Business
• Community
• Telecommunication Provider

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Forming A Shared Vision For Palau

• CITAs Responsibilities
• Developed National ICT Plan
• With the input of a large representation of the
  Palauan Community
• Recognition of Limited ICT Resources
• Coordinate public and private sectors to
  optimize ICT development in Palau
• Develop comprehensive plan and programs
• Further Economic Development of Palau
• Improve the delivery of Government Services
• Improve Health care
• Improve Education
• Improve and expand Internet service and access

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Bridging the Digital Divide

• Increasing Access to ICT
• Commercial Public-Use Internet Centers
• Developing plans for Rural Telecenters
• LocalNet
• Unmetered Domestic Access
• Encourages development of Domestic Internet use
• - E-Governance/Distant Education/Tele-Health
• Web-page Design and use

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Developing ICT Infrastructure

• Domestic Connectivity
• DSL provisioned to Business, Government, and
  Public-Use Centers
• Planning is underway for enhancement of Domestic
  Fiber Optic capacity
• Currently an OC-3 SONET ring near capacity
• Proposed to increase so that commercial,
  education, health, government, community and
  rural needs are met

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Developing ICT Infrastructure

• International Connectivity
• Dependant on Satellite Service - (expensive
  bandwidth)
• Palau is exploring
• Submarine Fiber Optic options
• New Satellite options
• Large Object Cache Mirror Sites
• Reduce traffic over International Connection for
  often visited sites
• Distant Education curriculum will be first Large
  Object Cache application

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Essential Applications for the Information Society

• E-Government
• PNCC and Government Sectors are working together
  to move into E-Governance
• Some applications such as Tax and Social Security
  are implemented
• Project for Legislature is nearing completion
• Development of E-governance for all Ministries is
  in progress and funding is being sought for more
  advanced e-services.

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Essential Applications for the Information Society

• Health and Education
• Libraries are being interconnected with
  high-speed service
• Intranets/WAN with high-speed connectivity
  between sites and Portals are being implimented
• International bandwidth projects are being
  proposed

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Essential Applications for the Information Society

• Health and Education (continued)
• Ministry of Health is Actively Using ICT for
  Training and Consultation
• Requires increased bandwidth connectivity
• International Point to Point service needed
• Ministry of Education has proposed a project for
  International Distant-Education
• National Conference on Rural Multipurpose
  Community Telecenters was held
• Planning is underway for implementation of Rural
  Telecenter

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Summary

• Planning Group in place, needs are identified,
  shared vision is developed.
• Palau has an excellent Domestic infrastructure
  but requires strategic upgrades for provision of
  broadband service
• Cost of International access prohibitive
  alternatives are required
• Financial structure of Telecommunications is
  fragile small population/high costs