ICT IN KIRIBATI

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ICT IN KIRIBATI

• PRESENTERSMareta Teakai
• PUBLIC SERVICE OFFICE

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PRESENTATION SUMMARY

• BACKGROUND OF KIRIBATI
• ICT STATUS
• ICT ISSUES
• ICT INITIATIVES

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BACKGROUND OF KIRIBATI

• PROFILE
• Population 92533
• 43 - South Tarawa
• 57 - Outer Islands
• Consists of 33 low-lying coral reefs and atolls.
• 20 Inhabited

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BACKGROUND OF KIRIBATI

• Divided into 3 Groups
• Gilbert
• Line
• Phoenix
• Total Land area
• 811 square kilometers (313 square miles)

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ICT STATUS

• ICT PENETRATION - LOW
• Out of 20 inhabited islands, only 2 have full
  access to Telephone/Internet services (South
  Tarawa and Christmas Island)
• Outer Islands use High Frequency Radio Telephone
• Connection is made through an operator
• Service available to islands for 3 hours every
  day.

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ICT STATUS

• INFRASTRUCTURE
• Two Service Providers
• Telecom Services Kiribati Ltd (TSKL)
• Telecom Kiribati Ltd (TKL)
• TSKL Services
• Telephone
• Residential land lines
• Business fixed land lines
• Public Telephones
• Mobile Cellular phones

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ICT STATUS

• Dial-up Internet connection
• Broadband Internet connection
• TKL Services
• TV
• Broadband Internet connection

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ICT STATUS

• South Tarawa (Population 40311)
• 11 have residential land lines
• 1.5 homes that have access to TV
• 10 have their own computer
• 25 have access to the Internet
• Approximately 200 businesses (90 have full
  access to telephones, 70 have access to the
  Internet
• 16 public telephones

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ICT STATUS

• Christmas Island (Population approx 10000)
• 10 have residential land lines
• 1 have their own computer
• 5 have access to the Internet
• Approximately 50 businesses (70 have access to
  telephones, 20 have access to the Internet
• 6 public telephones

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ICT STATUS

• EDUCATION SECTOR
• Number of Primary School less than 100
• 8 have access to telephones
• None have computer lab
• None have access to the Internet
• Number of High School 17
• 7 have access to telephones
• 4 have computer labs
• 2 have access to the Internet

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ICT STATUS

• Number of Tertiary 6
• All have access to telephones
• 2 have computer labs
• 2 have access to the Internet

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ICT STATUS

• GOVERNMENT SECTOR
• Number of Government ministries/offices 20
• All have access to telephone and Internet
  services
• 3 have websites (2 hosted by ISP)
• 12 have email system
• 8 use ISP email system
• No Government Wide Intranet
• No ICT Standards for Government
• No formalized e-Government Strategy.

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ICT ISSUES

• MAJOR ISSUES

Infrastructure Limitations
High costs of access and equipment
The lack of regulatory frameworks/policies
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ICT ISSUES
Infrastructure Limitations
Access to the Telephone/Internet services is
limited to people on South Tarawa and Christmas
Island.
The quality of these services, is not as good as
in Tonga or Fiji.
Dial-up and broadband connections provided by the
two ISP in Kiribati are poor bandwidth
limitation.. .
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ICT ISSUES
Infrastructure Limitations
Some areas on South Tarawa and Christmas Island
can not use wireless Internet connection or
mobile phones as they are outside the coverage
range (Black spots)
Unreliable power supply, and noisy telephone
lines for those who use land lines to connect to
the Internet.
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ICT ISSUES
High costs of access and equipment
Broadband Internet Connection Fees Unaffordable V
ery Expensive
Charges range 30 AUD - 500 AUD per month
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ICT ISSUES
High costs of access and equipment
Coconut Wireless Charges
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ICT ISSUES
High costs of access and equipment
MauriNet Wireless Charges
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ICT ISSUES
High costs of access and equipment
Very few people can afford to buy these ICTs
tools.
Equipment computer, modem etc . . .
. Unaffordable Very Expensive
Computer price ranges from 1200 - 3500
Broadband Modem price ranges from 399 - 759
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ICT ISSUES
Urgent need for Government to develop a
National ICT Policy. Before things get worse.
The lack of regulatory frameworks/policies
No National ICT Policy in place or under
development.
Ministries have developed their own solutions for
email, Internet and data access without reference
to a common standard or National ICT Policy.

• Task of integration becomes more complicated
• System incompatibility becomes a big issue.

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ICT INITIATIVES

Government Initiatives
A paper has been submitted to Cabinet to approve
the establishment of an ICT Task Force to develop
the National ICT Policy.
Ministry of Education had supported some ICT
activity in co-operation with the
government-owned company, Telecom Kiribati Ltd by
providing all secondary and tertiary training
schools on South Tarawa with two computers each
that connect to the Internet.
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ICT INITIATIVES

Government Initiatives
Some government ministries have developed and
published their own websites.
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THANK YOU