Telecom
Internet explosion in FSM
Stateside islanders connect with home.
A short memory ago in Micronesia, in the 1970s when telephone listings had three digits or there were no phones at all, and when the address was "U.S. Trust Territory," access to essential information was immediate but not at all technical. Hardly a heartbeat stopped, for instance, before the death was known throughout the community by the coconut telegraph. Traditional communicators conveyed essential news through rumors and gossip.
But the arrival of Internet in 1996 is connecting Micronesians and Marshallese in significantly different ways. While the numbers of subscribers remain small in global terms, they continue to shoot up. The Federated States of Micronesia's subscriber base, for instance, has ballooned more than 140 percent since 1997, to nearly 1,500 users. The Marshall Islands, which charges more than double the Federated States of Micronesia's $19.95/monthly access fee, and $3 per hour compared to the Federated States of Micronesia's $1.95, had 545 users as of late in 2000.
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With the advent of Internet, the growing populations of Micronesians and Marshallese living in the United States have immediate and cheap access to news from home. Phone calls among islanders long used to the oral tradition can quickly spiral into unpayable sums. But Internet chat rooms on Web sites devised specially for Marshallese and Federated States of Micronesian citizens link hundreds of people daily from every corner of the United States and the islands for mere pennies.
Now, with Internet well established, moves are afoot to expand bandwidth and improve service. The Federated States of Micronesia started with a 128 kilobyte link—the technological Dark Ages—to the Internet five years ago, but in late 2000, upgraded that to 1024 kb, greatly expanding the speed that customers can access Internet information. Starting with just 30 analog modems for the entire country, Federated States of Micronesia's Telecom during 2000 installed all digital modems, increasing the total to 240. The Marshalls started with just 16 modems and now is on its way to 48, with a doubling of the bandwidth to 512 kb in early 2001.
Marshalls National Telecommunications Authority (NTA) deputy manager Tommy deBrum say: "The FSM has four states with a larger population and more than 1,500 subscribers. If we get an increase in our subscriber base, it will justify expansion of the bandwidth."
