By Scott C. Salii
The Australia News Network reports that the island nation of Vanuatu will be getting a major upgrade in their connection to the rest of the world with the construction of a new fiber-optic data connection.
Port Vila based Interchange Cable Network along with French telecom giant Alcatel are beginning a $31 million dollar project to create a fiber optic connection between Vanuatu and the world. ICN CEO Simon Fletcher sees the move not only as a potentially very lucrative economic boost for the nation but brings all the benefits of being connected to the information superhighway.
“Telecommunications enhancements in bandwidth supply could offer products such as remote monitoring and diagnosis of medical conditions, clinic MRI scans for example.” Fletcher said. This could enable a doctor in Australia to view a MRI scan in real time even halfway around the world.
In addition, dosage technological advances have now made access to specialized higher education and telecommuting jobs like a call-center operator available where once these prospects were possible only with much travel and personal expense. These benefits are becoming more clear by the day, ed and according to a new special report to the United Nations Human Rights Council “…the Internet boosts economic, social and political development, and contributes to the progress of humankind as a whole” prompting new policy discussion and legislation in countries around the world.
All of this signals a paradigm shift that sees the Internet as more than a luxury, but as a means of protecting and enhancing human rights, as well as a tool that can raise standards of living in even the most remote of regions. With this move, Vanuatu has placed itself in a position to take full advantage of modern technology now, and in the future.
