|
16 PACRICS pilot sites were fully funded by the Australian Government (AUSAID) through SPC, which ran the project from September 2007 until December 2009.
This included the costs of VSAT equipment, its transport, installation and maintenance as well as its running costs (uplink rental). It also includes the CIC equipment (Isibox server , power surge board, WiFi access point, Switch/Hub and LaserPrinter)
The countries initially concerned were the following:
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati (2), Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea (2), Samoa, Solomon Islands (2), Tonga, Tokelau, Vanuatu and French Polynesia.
Some amendments were done during the contract period: Nauru was replaced by Palau, Fiji by a second Pilot Site in Vanuatu and French Polynesia by Tuvalu. Most of the sites are operational or in the process to be operational .
Some pilots sites are working as a CIC (Community Information Center) while some others are school-based telecenters.
With the end of AUSAID support no further Pilot sites will be funded. All those that benefited from the free bandwidth during at least one year or that are able to sustain themselves will be turned into commercial sites by March 2010.
|
