ICT Profile - Pacific Islands

Country name	Cook Islands	Federated States of Micronesia	Fiji	Kiribati
Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)	ck	fm	fj	ki
National population	14,300	118,100	824,700	90,700
Rural population, % of national	41	63	54	63
Gross domestic product per capita (US$)	4,950	2,070	2,680	700
Key economic sectors	Tourism	Fish, Tourism	Garments, Tourism, Sugar	Copra, Fish
Literacy in English (%), male/female	99	N.A.	94 / 89	92
Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants	N.A.	N.A.	5.5	N.A
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: national	45	10	10	N.A.
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: urban	55	N.A.	20	8
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: rural	35	N.A.	N.A.	4
Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants	1.0	1.4	6.6	N.A.
Internet subscribers	1,100	1,800	6,000	510
Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants	9.5	N.A.	9.7	N.A.
Websites in English and other languages	85	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
National bandwidth to/from the country	2 M (in), 256 K (out)	N.A.	8 Mb	512 K

Country name	Niue	Palau	Papua New Guinea	Republic of the Marshall Islands
Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)	nu	pw	pg	mh
National population	1,500	19,100	4,790,800	51,800
Rural population, % of national	65	29	85	35
Gross domestic product per capita (US$)	3,710	8,030	1,200	2,210
Key economic sectors	Government	Tourism	Petroleum, Mining, Timber, Fish	Copra, Fish
Literacy in English (%), male/female	99	97	81 / 63	15
Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants	N.A.	N.A.	5.5	N.A.
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: national	N.A.	39	12	15
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: urban	66	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: rural	25	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants	N.A.	N.A.	0.9	N.A.
Internet subscribers	200	1,700	24,600	N.A.
Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants	N.A.	10	0.2	N.A.
National bandwidth to/from the country	64 K	2M / 3M	2M	N.A.

Country name	Solomon Islands	Tonga	Tuvalu	Vanuatu
Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)	sb	to	tv	vu
National population	447,900	100,200	9,900	199,800
Rural population, % of national	87	68	58	79
Gross domestic product per capita (US$)	340	1,870	1,160	1,230
Key economic sectors	Timber, Fish, Palm, copra	Agriculture, Fish, Tourism	Government	Copra, Tourism, Agriculture
Literacy in English (%), male/female	56	N.A.	98	60
Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants	4.6	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: national	1.5	8	8.6	3
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: urban	10.8	23	13	12
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: rural	0.2	3	3	N.A.
Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants	8.5	N.A.	0.9	N.A.
Internet subscribers	600	1,200	250	2,000
Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants	0.3	0.2	N.A.	0.2
National bandwidth to/from the country	In: 320 kb, Out: 512 kb	N.A.	128 K	N.A.

Country name	Samoa
Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)	ws
National population	169,200
Rural population, % of national	79
Gross domestic product per capita (US$)	1,060
Key economic sectors	Fish, tourism, garments
Literacy in English (%), male/female	98
Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants	0.6
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: national	6.6
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: urban	17
Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants: rural	2
Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants	N.A.
Internet subscribers	3,000
Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants	1.9
National bandwidth to/from the country	2 Mb

Key ICT Information

Urban teledensities ranging from about 20 to 60 per hundred population (low by global standards but when household sizes and social patterns are taken into consideration nearly all urban residents have access to telecommunication services).
Rural teledensities however range from one half to one tenth of those in urban areas.
Four Pacific countries have digital mobile phone services, the remainder offer only analog, and one country does not offer any mobile services.
Only users in Tonga have a choice of carriers for telecommunications, while all other countries are served by monopoly providers for both domestic and international services.
Approximately 25% of Pacific islanders have regular access to ICTs, primarily through their workplaces, a few secondary and tertiary educational institutions, and a few public centres and Internet cafes.
The number of Internet subscribers ranges from about 1 in 5 in Niue (where access is free) to 1 in 1000 in Solomon Islands.
Users in only three Pacific counties (Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga) have a choice of Internet Service Providers; while users in all other countries are served by monopoly ISPs.
In terms of affordability, Pacific islanders typically face connectivity charges that are among the highest in the world.
Subscription and usage charges for dial up access to the Internet range from US$3 to US$175 per month, with an average of US$50.
On an annual basis this amounts to one quarter to one half of the average annual per capita GDP in many countries and is clearly unaffordable by the majority of people.
The price of full-time Internet access via a 64 Kbps leased line varies much more widely than does that of dial-up access, from US$700 to US$5000 per month.
These prices are on average 5 times higher, and range to as much as 20 times higher, than in APEC developing countries.
The Solomon Islands survey showed that about one third of the users of the public Internet café are women, and about one quarter are youths of school age.
UNDP Statistics (2001) indicate a much lower participation of girls in some science subjects. Female participation in Computer Science and Mathematics is 37%. (including internal and external). External female students have a higher participation rate of 46% indicating female preference for distance education and their likely access and use of ICT to undertake their study.