FEATURE
CONNECTING MORE PACIFIC ISLANDS DURING COVID BY JOHN HIBBARD
The Pacific Ocean has a total of twenty-two (22) designated Pacific Island Nations/Countries (PICs). Of these five (5) do not yet have cable connections. With the development of the Southern Cross NEXT (SX NEXT) cable, the opportunity arose to provide two of these PICs with cable connections using spurs off the main SX NEXT cable from Australia to the USA. These two PICs are Kiribati and Tokelau. This paper outlines some of the challenges associated with providing cables to such places, particularly during the COVID pandemic.
the word nation (pronounced as “naishon”). Hence Kiribati is pronounced Kiribas and Kiritimati is pronounced Krismas (yes that’s right – Christmas!). Without knowing that, the locals can have significant issues relating to your needs! Kiritimati (Christmas) Island is located midway between French Polynesia and Hawaii. It is 3000 km away from the
KIRIBATI
In developing the arrangements for the Kiribati spur, particularly those associated with the terrestrial terminal, there have been some vital things that one has had to learn. At the risk of sounding extremely basic, the first and particularly important one is how to correctly pronounce the various names written in local indigenous language. The Kiribati spur off SX NEXT lands at Kiritimati. These place names are words from the local Gilbertese language. In Gilbertese there is no ‘S’ in the alphabet, rather they use “TI” for “S” - not dissimilar to English such as in JULY 2021 | ISSUE 119
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