Review of Pacific Regional Digital Strategy
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Final report for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Review of Pacific Regional Digital Strategy Part A: Technological Capacity Network Strategies Report Number 29029. 11 June 2010 0 Executive summary The Pacific Regional Digital Strategy is an initiative under the Pacific Plan to promote economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security in Forum Countries. The Strategy establishes the following priorities: • improving access to communications technology • reducing costs • establishing higher bandwidth to the global ICT ‘backbone’ • removing inappropriate regulatory environments in order to foster higher levels of investment • strengthening ICT skills. With the liberalisation that has occurred in a number of Pacific telecoms sectors over the last four years the reach, availability and affordability of mobile services in the region has improved considerably. Nevertheless telecoms penetration and availability in many of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are generally low when compared to developed countries, for basic voice as well as more advanced services such as Internet access, broadband and mobiles. ICT and Universal Access policies are still under development in many PICs. In some of the smaller PICs telecoms market structures and services have changed little and it appears that it is a difficult process for these governments to develop updated ICT policies and legislation, mainly due to capacity and resource constraints. For these countries sub- regional solutions may be most appropriate with a focus on introducing measures to improve access to and availability of services from the existing providers. A number of key advances have occurred with ICT regional harmonisation and assistance. Of particular note is the proposed Pacific ICT regulatory resource centre which will ii Network Strategies Final report for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat provide regulatory advice, training and data to PICs, and the Japan-Pacific ICT Centre at USP. The expense of international capacity continues to be a major issue. There remains heavy reliance on satellite services for the very sparsely distributed, relatively small, regional populations. PICs in general find satellite costs high and are still seeking ways to reduce these costs. Submarine connectivity is a high priority for many PICs but once again cost is a major challenge. Due to the high cost associated with its deployment, international connectivity via submarine cable remains relatively scarce among PICs. However, there have been a number of recent successful projects with additional ventures either forthcoming or under discussion. ICTs offer huge potential for social and economic development in the Pacific. To this end regional organisations are clearly working to promote the benefits of ICTs at both the national and regional levels, and also in the private sector. However, at present converged applications (such as e-government, e-commerce, e-health and e-education) are either non- existent or in their infancy. Recent information on progress in these areas is difficult to obtain readily, but we found that the accessibility and cost of communications technology still represent significant barriers. In many cases governments and households with scarce resources still struggle to meet very basic needs with the result that ICT cannot be a priority. While in some PICs the increase in availability and accessibility of mobile phones is certainly providing new social and economic opportunities, developmental potential offered by the Internet is still unattainable for most. Further development of infrastructure in the region is still required, yet only a minority of partners engage in infrastructure-related pilots or projects, and/or provide funding assistance. One example of a successful infrastructure project is PACRICS. Developed under the Pacific Plan to provide affordable and reliable Internet connectivity to any rural and remote area in the Pacific region, PACRICS has deployed many sites throughout the Pacific. Partners, donors and other agencies and organisations have made substantial and important contributions to capacity building and the promotion of ICT in the Pacific since the Digital Strategy. This has resulted in considerable progress in achieving the objectives of the Strategy although there is still much work-in-progress on key aspects such as national ICT Review of Pacific Regional Digital Strategy iii policies and planning, accessibility of ICTs to rural populations, and regional ICT coordination and harmonisation. With respect to the latter there is certainly a need for improved regional coordination as current channels appear to be ineffective, resulting in gaps in information and knowledge about current and planned activities amongst partners and potential inefficiencies. Opportunities for stakeholder consultation and engagement appear to be very ad hoc, leading to considerable potential for overlap. This situation is exacerbated by the paucity of information and statistics available on ICT progress at the national level and the lack of published information on objectives, developments and outcomes of regional initiatives. In the four years since the formulation of the Digital Strategy it is clear that progress has been made towards its priorities. At the same time our review indicates that with respect to every single priority there remains considerable work to be completed, and emerging gaps and needs to be addressed. In summary, some very fundamental challenges remain: • the provision of adequate, accessible and affordable infrastructure for all PICs • the need to increase usage of such infrastructure through education, training and capacity building, The Digital Strategy II will aim to address these challenges, building on the progress and knowledge that has been gained since the launch of the first Digital Strategy. Review of Pacific Regional Digital Strategy Final report for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Contents 0 Executive summary i 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Study overview 1 1.2 Study methodology 1 1.3 Structure of report 2 1.4 The Digital Strategy 3 2 Developments in ICT since the Digital Strategy 9 2.1 Liberalisation 9 2.2 ICT policies and legislation 13 2.3 International connectivity 17 2.4 Reducing the digital divide 23 2.5 ICT capacity building 28 2.6 Regional harmonisation and assistance 30 2.7 Conclusions 34 3 ICT in the Pacific: accessibility and affordability 37 3.1 Accessibility of communications technology in PICs 37 3.2 Costs of communications technologies 45 3.3 Conclusions 51 vi | Network Strategies Final report for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat 4 Utilisation of ICT in the PICs 53 4.1 Definitions of ICT applications 53 4.2 ICT in government 55 4.3 ICT in education 60 4.4 ICT in health 64 4.5 ICT in commerce 64 4.6 Potential of ICTs to meet future needs of PICs 65 4.7 Conclusions 71 5 Partners and players 73 5.1 Roles and contributions 73 5.2 Coordination 76 5.3 Conclusions 78 6 Concluding remarks 81 Annex A: Overview of ICT in the PICs A1 A.1 Cook Islands A1 A.2 Federated States of Micronesia A4 A.3 Fiji A7 A.4 Kiribati A10 A.5 Marshall Islands A14 A.6 Nauru A15 A.7 Niue A16 A.8 Palau A18 A.9 Papua New Guinea A21 A.10 Samoa A24 A.11 Solomon Islands A28 A.12 Tonga A31 A.13 Tuvalu A34 A.14 Vanuatu A35 Annex B: Status of PIC government websites B1 Annex C: Submarine cable connectivity C1 Review of Pacific Regional Digital Strategy vii Annex D: Regional initiatives D1 Annex E: Regional partners and players E1 Annex F: Stakeholder consultation F1 Annex G: Terms of reference for this study G1 List of Exhibits Exhibit 1.1: Pillars and key programs [Source: PIFS, Network Strategies] 5 Exhibit 2.1: Liberalisation timeline among selected Pacific Island countries [Source: Network Strategies] 10 Exhibit 2.2: ICT sector structure [Source: Network Strategies] 11 Exhibit 2.3: Status of Forum countries that have not liberalised [Source: Network Strategies] 12 Exhibit 2.4: ICT policies and legislation in PICs [Source: Network Strategies] 14 Exhibit 2.5: Status of universal access/service in PICs [Source: Network Strategies] 24 Exhibit 3.1: Fixed telephone penetration in PICs from 2004 to 2008 [Source: ITU] 38 Exhibit 3.2: Mobile phone penetration in PICs from 2004 to 2008 [Source: ITU] 39 Exhibit 3.3: Internet penetration in PICs from 2004 to 2008 [Source: ITU] 40 Exhibit 3.4: Broadband penetration in PICs from 2004 to 2008 [Source: ITU] 41 Exhibit 3.5: Fixed telephone penetration in PICs, 2008 [Source: ITU, World Bank, national statistics offices] 42 Exhibit 3.6: Mobile phone penetration in PICs, 2008 [Source: ITU, World Bank, national statistics offices] 43 Exhibit 3.7: Internet penetration in PICs, 2008 [Source: ITU, World Bank, national statistics offices] 44 x | Network Strategies Final report for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Exhibit 3.8: Broadband penetration in PICs, 2008 [Source: ITU, World Bank, national statistics offices] 45 Exhibit 3.9: Percentage of average monthly income required for fixed telephone usage for a high volume user in PICs, February 2010 [Source: Operator websites] 47 Exhibit 3.10: Percentage of average monthly income required for fixed telephone usage for a high volume user in PICs, February 2010 [Source: Operator websites] 47 Exhibit 3.11: Percentage of average monthly income required for mobile phone usage for a low volume user in PICs, February 2010 [Source: Operator websites] 49 Exhibit 3.12: Percentage of average monthly income required for mobile phone usage for a high