1
Dany Vandromme &
George McLaughlin
ACP
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
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Specific Objective of the Assessment Study
to examine the relevance and viability of establishing or
enhancing National Research and Education Networks
(NRENs) in the Pacific Region
and/or the implementation of a Regional Research and
Education Network (RREN),
as well as identifying potential beneficiary institutions
and other stakeholders.
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
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Who initiated the Study
The European Commission - on behalf of the
Pacific Region of the
African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States
within the framework of the
10th EDF* Intra-ACP Development Cooperation
ACP Connect
for Research and Education Networks Programme
 * = European Development Fund
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Why?
Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands are the
most underserved parts of the world, particularly with
respect to affordable high-speed telecommunications
infrastructure, and exploiting that infrastructure to
improve education, health, societal benefit and
research outcomes. REN initiatives are well
advanced now in Africa and the Caribbean, but much
less so among most of the Pacific Islands.
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Undersea Cable Deployment - the underserved
As of mid-2012, only 21 nations and territories remain
isolated from fibre optic connectivity, though projects
are underway in many of these markets at the time of
writing (Submarine Cable Industry Report, Issue 1, July 2012,
Submarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.)
The Pacific Island Nations and Territories together
with Timor Leste account for more than half of these
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Much Interest in addressing these issues for the
Pacific Islands
 World Bank; Asian Development Bank;
 AusAID; NZAID, JICA, ITU, UNESCO
 Asia Pacific Telecommunity
 Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association
 ACP Group of States, EC
 U Hawaii; NSRC, NSF
 Pacific Telecommunications Council
 Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre
 New players and partners of influence
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
TARGET COUNTRIES for this Study
• A number of Pacific Island Countries consist of many islands
• The region spans 6 different time zones
• Largest population more than 6 million (PNG), smallest just over 1,000 (Niue)
• Recent political challenges in some
• Critical survival conditions for others (eg Kiribati due to threat of sea level rise)
• low priority of REN issues relative to other pressing social and environmental
needs
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
GDP PPP
Internet
ACP Pacific
Population
% Population
REN
per capita
Usage as at
Country
(2011 Est.)
(Penetration)
Ranking
31 Dec 2011
Papua New
PNG150
6,187,591
125,000
2.00%
Guinea
ARNet
East Timor
143
1,177,833
2,361
0.20% SoI Asia
Cable Landing
To
8
APNG-2
PPC-1
Australia & active
Guam
active
AU & Hawaii active
Vanuatu
2013
Tonga
2013
129
833,125
162,880
18.40% USP-Net
SCCN
ICN
Tonga Cable
138
571,890
26,907
4.70% USP-Net
SOC to PPC-1
125
224,564
19,172
8.50% USP-Net
ICN
Samoa
113
193,161
12,816
6.60% USP-Net
SAS
Micronesia
Tonga
Kiribati
Marshall
Islands
Palua
Cook
Islands
Tuvalu
Nauru
Niue
Pacific
156
104
111
106,836
105,916
100,743
22,213
12,487
8,959
20.80%
11.80% USP-Net
8.90% USP-Net
HANTRU1
Tonga Cable
149
67,182
6,540
9.70% USP-Net
HANTRU1
Guam
active
100
20,956
5,980
28.50%
foreshadowed
Guam
2014
11,124
6,000
53.90% USP-Net
Fiji
Solomon
Islands
Vanuatu
137
124
10,544
4,300
40.80% USP-Net
9,322
340
3.60% USP-Net
1,311
1,100
83.90% USP-Net
ACP
CONNECT
Assessment
9,622,098
417,055 Pacific4.33%
Study
Guam
2013
Fiji
2013
Am Samoa
active
Hawaii
Guam
active
Fiji
2013
Higher Education, Technical and Vocational Education Institutions
(more than 50 institutions)
ACP Pacific
Country
Cook Islands
USP
East Timor
Universidade Nacional de Timor-Leste plus 9 others
Fiji
USP; Fiji National University; University of Fiji
Kiribati
USP; Institute of Technology; Fisheries Training Centre; Marine Training Centre; School of Nursing;
Teachers College
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Marshall Islands USP; College of the Marshall Islands
Nauru
Niue
USP
Papau New
Guinea
Uni of PNG; Uni of Technology; Uni of Natural Environment & Resources; Uni of Goroka; Divine Word
Uni; Pacific Adventist Uni; Don Bosco Technological Institute; Institute of Business Studies; National
Polytechnic Institute; plus 3 technical colleges and 3 business colleges
Samoa
USP; National University of Samoa
USP
Solomon Islands USP; Solomon Islands College of Higher Education
Tonga
USP; Institute of Education; Institute of Higher Education ; Institute of Science and Technology; Tupou
Tertiary Institute; Pouono Technical Institute; Health Training Centre ; Queen Salote School of Nursing
Tuvalu
USP; Maritime Training Institute
Vanuatu
USP; Institute of Technology; College of Nursing; Agriculture College; Institute of Teacher Education;
Maritime College; Fisheries Centre
New submarine cable infrastructure
Yap
Palau
Solomons
Current and Planned
Cable Systems in the
Pacific Island Region
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ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
11/05/2102
Established 1968
12 member countries
Multi owned and multi
funded
33million Sq Km ocean
USP SERVING THE PACIFIC ISLAND COUNTRIES
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CONCEPTUAL REN
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Global view
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Opportunities as part of the global NREN community
 Immediate access to massive teaching and learning resources
 Opportunity to participate in regional and global collaborations
 Societal benefit
 Improving lives as a result of implementing advanced communications
that support the well-being of the population (eg access to expertise
1000’s of km away, disaster warning and mitigation) - examples
 Catalysing and stimulating the information economy
 Providing services to transform business, society, and personal lives.
 Implementing collaborative innovation and access to information
 Acting as incubator for technology transfer to industry and commerce
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Research vs Societal Benefit agenda
 Good networking can vastly improve societal benefit
 When combined with a research agenda eg
 earthquake modeling/prediction
 climate change research
 remote immersive diagnostic systems for patient assessment
 bioinformatics research to improve response and mitigation of emerging
infections
a compelling case may result
 Drivers depend on the needs of the country concerned and the ability to
support the initiatives
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Structure of the Study (1)




Inception Report
Desk Study
Field Phase
Synthesis phase
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Structure of the Study (2)






More than 70 individual contributors (mainly face-to face)
Contributions from more than 40 organisations
Compilation and analysis of relevant studies already undertaken
Assessment of the Regulatory Environment
Identification of the Education and Research Requirements
Identification of potential user Institutions of a Pacific REN
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Findings, Roadmap, Awareness Raising
 Deficiencies in Information Exchange between R&E Institutions and
between relevant Ministries
 Limited extent of current R&E Networking among the target countries of
the Study
 Factors to address for enhanced uptake of undersea cable capacity
 Regional initiatives, potential synergies and potential sources of funding
 Development of a Roadmap and Awareness Raising
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Observations
 Mostly, among the ACP Pacific Target countries, education, human
capacity building and societal benefit have higher priority than research
 High costs for local and international telecommunication infrastructures
and services are a significant obstacle
 Insufficient understanding for R&E traffic and consequences in terms of
peering and funding agreements
 In those target countries where the pricepoint of mobile broadband (3G)
is affordable, significant transformation is already occurring – well suited
to Pacific Island situatiions where fixed instrastructure deployment has
challenges.
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
R&E landscape
 All target countries recognise the importance of ICT and Internet access
to support Education, at all levels (from primary to tertiary).
 In addition to USP, more than 40 other post-secondary/tertiary
institutions are located in the PICs, which may be part of the
membership base of a Pacific regional REN (PacREN)
 University of South Pacific is a regionally based institution with
campuses in 12 PICs. It is an almost unique arrangement of being like a
Regional REN, but for a single institution. But there is no NREN in Fiji,
ie USP’s main campus in Suva doesn’t network interconnect with the
National University of the University of Fiji over shared infrastructure.
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
National infrastructures
 Only PNG has something approaching an NREN (PNG-Arnet), which is
organised as a satellite service, of which the hub station is located in
Singapore.
 It is complemented by a 10 Mbps leased line (on PPC-1) to access the
commercial Internet in Sydney.
 At the national level, the R&E institutions consensus has still to be
enhanced
 There is no arrangement for R&E traffic exchanges with other PICs, nor
with TEIN nor AARNet
 PNG has two significantly underutilised cable systems (one to Australia
and one to both Australia and Guam)
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Regional initiatives
 AusAID (Australia): Pacific Tertiary Education Strategy 2020 (funding:
$85 Million over 4 years) to improve access to tertiary education in a
number of PICs, including the establishment of a Pacific Regional
Research and Education Network
 Univesity of Hawaii, NSRC and the US-NSF EAGER Award to engage
R&E community and other stakeholders for research networking in the
PICs.
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Regional initiatives
 UNESCO CONNECT-Asia initiative and School on the Internet (SoI),
with support of Japan’s WIDE program and a number of APAN
Members. UNTL (Timor Leste) is involved both with Connect-Asia and
SoI.
 ACP-Connect study was introduced at the last Connect-Asia meeting in
Jakarta (July 2012) with UNESCO, SoI and APAN expressing
willingness to help.
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Roadmap: National level
 Three possible scenarios are proposed to match all the possible PIC
configurations:
 Standard NREN (A)
 Shared resources for Education (B)
 Internet only (C)
ACP CONNECT Pacific Assessment Study
Roadmap: National level
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Roadmap: Regional level
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Roadmap: Regional level
 A mix of submarine cables circuits and satellite services is proposed.
 It supposes that non-ACP countries will be allowed to participate (and
contribute) as non-beneficiaries (much like in the TEIN setup).
 A core ring between Guam, PNG, Sydney, Fiji and Hawaii,
complemented with cable circuits to Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomons,
Samoa, Palau, Marshalls and Micronesia, and satellite services.
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Roadmap: Regional level
 Proposed governance is a regional organisation, similar to the USP
setup, of which the country representatives should be the NRENs (A or
B types).
 C type countries will be invited to join at the time they will migrate from
C to B or A…
 Significant effort is needed to explain the benefit and cost efficiency of
distinguishing R&E traffic from commercial Internet, justifying dedicated
circuits on submarine cables.
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Roadmap: Connectivity to global R&E
 R&E access to I2/NLR/CANARIE, TEIN, SINET, APAN Members,
GEANT through Guam, Hawaii - and AARNet, REANNZ through
Sydney
 Satellite hub(s) will need also to provide direct R&E peerings (TEIN and
WIDE in Singapore or Hong Kong, O3B in Hawaii)
 Transit negotiations with AARNet, TEIN, I2/NLR, APAN Members, etc.
will need to be undertaken at the PacREN level
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Twelve recommendations sorted into three
groups are proposed:
• Architecture : R1 to R3
• Regional Cooperation : R4 to R9
• Awareness Raising : R10 to R12
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ARCHITECTURE:
Recommendation #1
 Promote the need of a NREN strategy in all ACP countries, as a tool
for improving the R&E sector and a requirement to participate to any
regional network initiative
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ARCHITECTURE:
Recommendation #2
 Ensure the ACP countries validate and support the PacREN regional
network principle, strategy and architecture.
 ACP secretariat, together with the EC will need to play a significant
role through the broad awareness recommendation
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ARCHITECTURE:
Recommendation #3
 Consider mobile broadband penetration as a key support mechanism
to reach R&E users where fixed infrastructure deployment has
challenges.
 Take advantage of new paradigms like cloud-based services to
concentrate on fundamental network functions not available on the
market (eg net+ services)
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REGIONAL COOPERATION: Recommendations #4, #5,
#6 and #7
 Cooperation with AusAID, and engagement with their 2020 strategy
(noting that AusAID’s strategy does not include all ACP countries)
 Cooperation with University of Hawaii and NSRC for the US-NFS
funded EAGER study (Guam and Hawaii should play key roles as
hubs of a PacREN)
 Cooperation with JICA and USP in the adaptation of the satellite
components of USP-Net to the new cable availabilities to concentrate
on pure satellite services for off-cable PICs. Interconnect with Japan
via cables from Hawaii or Guam
 Cooperation with the education delivery programs of UNESCO, SoI
and the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Program
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REGIONAL COOPERATION: Recommendation #8
 Cooperation with Asian Development Bank and the World Bank
(focus on economic development) which are key actors for new cable
deployment (Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomons, etc.). - R&E may act as
catalyst or even early adopters of cable infrastructure.
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REGIONAL COOPERATION: Recommendation #9
 Cooperation with SPC (to be replaced), PICs and PIRRC, which may
be key players for the administrative, governance & regulatory issues
of PacREN. They may also play a key role in the broad awareness
raising process.
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AWARENESS RAISING: Recommendation #10, #11 and
#12
 Awareness raising of the R&E user community at the local and
national levels.
 Awareness raising of governments and ministries
 Awareness campaign through workshops/seminars in order to
enhance in a coordinated way, the sensitivity to NREN/RREN issues
in all possible fora such as telecommunication conferences (like PITA
or PTC), R&E events etc.
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Conclusions
 During the four phases of the assessment study, major challenges were
identified, including.
 Limited economic power
 Limited awareness of R&E networking
 High telecommunication costs and limited cable footprint
 A roadmap is proposed, based on
 NREN stage (A, B and C types are possible)
 RREN stage (PacREN) made of a cable circuit core infrastructure,
complemented with satellite services for sparsely distributed PICs
(off-cable countries)
 Vigourous awareness raising action is required to support both
previous stages
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