Connected to the world via fiber optic cable
By: L.N. Reklai
A truly historic moment in Palau’s development history was marked last night with the official launch of the submarine fiber optic cable service called Lighting Up Palau. The momentous event took place at the Belau National Museum against the backdrop of Palau’s Bai, witnessed by Palau’s leadership and community members.
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“This is truly a historic milestone. All of us are taking a giant leap forward to keep up with the advancement and development of telecommunication with the rest of the world,” stated President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr.
“Reaching this historic milestone was possible through public-private partnership and involvement of everyone concern,” added Remengesau.
“Beginning today, the broadband network will enable Palau to take advantage of new IT applications for e-health, e-education to e-commerce and will benefit businesses, local communities and people of Palau and Asian Development Bank is very proud to be a partner in this development,” remarked DDG PARD James Lynch of ADB at the launch ceremony.
To commemorate this historical moment, the first buoy and pieces of the four different types of fiber optic cables used to connect Palau to the SEA-US cable along with map of cable layout was presented to the Belau National Museum to be part of Palau’s historical journey.
Belau submarine cable, owned and managed by Belau Submarine Cable Corporation, a public corporation, will now provide international connection via fiber optic cable to the rest of the world.
Palau had relied until now on satellites to connect it to the rest of the world. Satellites services have been costly, with high latency resulting in low quality and intermittent services.
Belau Submarine Cable Corporation will be selling capacity to three existing telecom providers in Palau, PNCC, Palau Telecom and Palau Wifi. These providers will be connecting individuals and businesses to the capacity offered by BSCC.
PNCC Chairman Norman Ngiratecheboet says PNCC is set and ready to deliver faster internet services in all its platforms, 3G, 4G and Homenet and DLS.
PNCC Acting GM Leo Ben Teriong reported that PNCC have acquired from BSCC 2 gigabit capacity that they are giving out to the community. “ With the satellite, we had about 450 megabit. This is 3 times more capacity than we had before. We will observe usage and will come up with new plans next year.” [/restrict]