Big new satellite scheme

aims to conquer isolation

A Washington-based consul ting team is working on a proposal to link remote Pacific Island areas with their coun tries’ capitals, and with each other, by satellite.

According to a report in The New Zealand Herald, the pro ject would require a network of up to 6000 small land sta tions.

Final recommendations should be drawn up by the end of September and will be put to the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co operation, the secretariat of the South Pacific Forum, probably in July next year.

The estimated cost is about $129 million if a special satel lite is put up, plus an average of $25,800 for each land sta tion, together with the cost of augmenting existing facilities

and training technicians.

The Washington team, headed by Jane N. Hurd, is drawn from the Public Service Satellite Consortium and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Admi nistration.

A similar study, concentrat ing on specific country-by country costs, has been under taken for the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co operation by V. K. Sargeant, an Australian, and a New Zealan der, Warwick Thorley. They are likely to recommend a combination of terrestrial and satellite systems.

The Washington team sug gests that Pacific Island na tions may be able to put up 10 per cent of the initial cost, with countries such as New Zea

land, Australia, the United States, Japan and France sup plying 50 per cent to 60 per cent in low-interest, long-term loans.

The remainder would come from foreign commercial banks, bilateral donors, mul tilateral development banks, the United Nations Develop ment Program, foundations, private investors and perhaps the World Bank.

Impetus for the study came from the first South Pacific Forum meeting in Wellington in 1971, when Ministers dis cussed the inadequacy of tele communications in the region.

Jane Hurd says internaional links have been established since then, but in most cases links with rural areas and out lying islands within given countries remain rudimentary or non-existent.

The team has visited many of the Pacific nations in cluding a number of outlying areas to see the problems on the ground and ask users what their needs are.

In an article on her experi ences, Jane Hurd noted the following comments from Islanders in outlying areas: “Anything a week late is still news to us.

“We use broadcast radio.

You only hope the message gets through to the person you are aiming at.

“Communications here is a boat woth an outboard motor.”

The PSSC team sees the project as definitely a regional one, with four options for man aging it: One Pacific country acting as administrator and manager, a corporation to be established by the Pacific Is land countries, a new consor tium with membership repre senting all user countries, or an existing entity, such as the South Pacific Bureau for Eco nomic Co-operation.

It says about one-third of the satellite installtions would probably make a pro

fit, one-third would break even and one-third would lose money.

This, it says, would perhaps argue for some regional shar ing of revenues if one country made a significant profit on all its facilities while a smaller neighbor made a profit on fewer than half its installa tions.

The team sees the basic need as improved telephone ser vices, followed by telex and telegraphy, with television in most cases a distant option.

Among examples of the need for better communications, the team says lack of com munication means people in remote areas come to accept death as the inevitable con sequence of major illness or injury, even though they know people in towns have ready access to doctors and hospi tals.

In Micronesia, it says, in adequate radio communication led to the death of one man and permanent blindness of seve ral others who had drunk wood alcohol. They might have been saved if medical advice had been available by voice or data link.

In a recent letter to PIM, Ms Hurd said she hoped to have the final report ready before the SPECTEL, the meeting of South Pacific telecommunica tions authorities, due to be held in Vanuatu this year.

FSM’s 15-year

plan

In his third annual state of the nation message, Federated States of Micronesia President Tosiwo Nakayama has urged the FSM Congress to increase tax rates to finance develop ment projects. Presenting the Congress with a 15-year de velopment plan, President Nakayama said there was a need to reconstruct the eco nomy to focus activities on primary industries which would support human develop ment.