Pressure in paradise The extraordinary story of how Dr Ranulf Scarbrough CMgr and team brought reliable high-speed internet to a remote collection of Pacific islands
62 — SPR ING 202 1
On 11 April 2020, Dr Ranulf Scarbrough CMgr got a call from the telecoms operator on Aitutaki, the second largest of the Cook Islands. Its satellite antenna dish was faulty. People in the tiny Pacific nation were suffering hourly outages in service. Scarbrough had a big call to make. They could, in theory, switch the internet provision to the newly installed submarine cable that would bring broadband services to the islands for the first time. But switching would mean launching at least four months early. With the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold, people were relying on the internet to keep up with news and connect with loved ones around
the world. But would the crucial new system hold? Scarbrough had been in the Cook Islands since 2018, working on the huge, high-pressure project to install cable internet. The islands had previously been reliant on expensive and unreliable satellite internet. Heavy rain was enough to disrupt the signal. “It was a bit like going back to the ’80s,” Scarbrough says. He’s driven by the belief that everyone should have access to good telecoms, no matter where they live. He spent 13 years at BT and a further two at Openreach improving services in places like Cornwall. Over the years, he has learned that the more remote a settlement, the more important its connectivity is.
