Page 23 - IB AUG 2018

cover Story

Vanuatu its first ever fiber optic Internet the Pacific region, the move in their direc- most out of the technology if we have fast
service via the Fiji landing of the high tion have already taken place. and cheaper internet in the Pacific. With
capacity SCCN. PNG lawyer and owner of Masalai Com- the internet, the blockchain can really
Interchange’s new project, for cable munications Emmanuel Narokobi is one impact areas such as financial inclusion,
ICN2, will run from Vanuatu to Solomon of the few in the Pacific region to explore e-commerce, agriculture, electrification,
Islands and will give the latter its first ever the infant blockchain technology, said government services and in the not too
international fiber optic connection. to have huge cost savings prospects for distant future, areas such as the Internet
Early this year and after a kerfuffle businesses. Of Things,” Narokobi said.
involving the choice of building contrac- He explained to Islands Business why Not surprising then that submarine
tors by the Solomon Islands government, blockchain will need robust broadband telecom cable companies have turned their
a new Australian government funded access in order to work: “Blockchain is a attention to the Pacific region.
cable project, yet to be christened, was type of database that uses cryptography to “At the turn of the [21st century], the
announced and is expected to link Solo- secure its data and at the same time stores suggestion that these small island markets
mon Islands and Papua New Guinea to this data securely as multiple copies given would have been connected would be
Australia. to every single user of this database. An- shrugged off with a ‘who’s going to pay
By the looks of things, the Pacific Ocean other name for blockchain is Distributed for that?’ But as it has turned out, funding
will be a hive of cabling activities over the Ledger. from these projects can come from a vari-
next few years. But why? What’s driving “If you can imagine a ledger as a record ety of sources,” wrote John Manock, edi-
this trend? When not too long ago the of transactions then you can see how a tor of Technology Systems Corporation’s
ability to connect internationally through distributed ledger is multiple copies of (TSC) Submarine Cable World and Tony
a cable network was a luxury enjoyed by this ledger distributed to all the users of Mosley, director of Asia Pacific Business
very few countries in the Pacific, why is this blockchain. There are various types of Development at Ocean Specialist Inc (OSI).
everyone suddenly talking about building blockchains and the most popular one that OSI, a global provider of fiber optic
cables that would link islands to islands, has proven its value in securely storing fi- networks and TSC, a provider of market
one country to another? nancial transactions has been Bitcoin. The intelligence for the submarine cable indus-
Samisoni puts it down to the unprec- wide attention given to the blockchain has try, routinely partner under their shared
edented growth of Internet usage in primarily been because of the relatively corporate umbrella to assess market hap-
general. low cost security it provides. penings.
A bulk of that are transported over sub- “This is done by the code securely con- Early last year, they prepared a paper on
marine cables, considered a cheaper option ducting transactions without the need for the trend in the Pacific region.
to satellites, although the use of satellites a middle man or authority and using every “Some funding comes from local invest-
are never ruled out as they provide neces- member in the blockchain as a verifying ment, i.e., the island government or tele-
sary back up in case of a cable outage. agent. For example if the land titles in com/Internet providers. As noted, other
“Currently the main method for inter- Papua New Guinea were recorded on a funding has come from national govern-
national telecommunications is the use blockchain database and if the only way ments – primarily France and America – to
of submarine cables. Ninety nine per to legally buy and sell land was to use the fund cables to islands that they administer
cent of international telecommunications blockchain database’s secure App, then in the Pacific. Philanthropic organisations
is carried over submarine cables. The two things would happen to secure land have shown interest as well.
world, Pacific Islands included, continues titles against corrupt practices such as land “But perhaps the most significant
to consume ever increasing amounts of titles fraud: funders right now are the World Bank
data, with bandwidth demand projected 1) Everyone who uses this Land Titles and the Asian Development Bank, both
to almost double every two years for the Blockchain Database through their Web of which have been prominent in many of
foreseeable future. The demand is largely or mobile App would have a copy of every the projects in the Pacific. The future will
driven by a continued shift towards cloud land title on the database, and only see the continuation of the trend of
services, Internet and the continued explo- 2) If someone wanted to introduce a connecting Pacific islands with submarine
sion of mobile device usage,” he told the fraudulent land title transaction on to the cables. This is not just a desired outcome,
magazine. blockchain, the fraudulent copy would but a necessary one.
“Over the last five years (2013-17), the have to be verified by every single per- “Reliable, high speed broadband con-
submarine fiber industry has added an av- son in the network who already has a nectivity is vital for social and economic
erage of 32% capacity annually on major copy of the legitimate title. Therefore the development, poverty alleviation, e-health,
submarine routes, including upgrades and fraudulent copy would be rejected every e-government and e-learning. Govern-
new system builds. The global capacity is time and in doing so, keeping the Land ments and non-governmental organisa-
estimated to increase up to 143% by the Titles secure.” tions recognise that failing to provide
end of 2022. Current submarine systems To allow all that to happen, a reliable, connectivity to these islands deprive them
have design capacities of more than 60 fast and cheap Internet connection is the from having the same opportunities that
terabits per second.” obvious need. mainland populations have.
Samisoni singles out “Artificial Intel- “As you can imagine, when a user on The global submarine cable network is
ligence (AI), Internet of Things/Every- the blockchain has to also store all the designed to reach further into the Pacific
thing (IoT), 5G and Block Chain” as the same information as everyone else on the and bring the benefits of high speed In-
bandwidth hungry technologies but as blockchain data usage increases and inter- ternet to more island populations,” wrote
futuristic as they may sound, these are net speeds become very important to make Manock and Mosley.
not demands that will be expected in some the blockchain usable. Data connectivity
distant future. They are already part of the is critical to blockchain usage, although
Internet and social revolution today and in there are offline options we will get the r dtabureguci@gmail.com

Islands Business,August 2018 23