Strengthening and Extending Palau’s Communications Infrastructure to Connect the Unconnected

A single submarine fiber cable had been the bedrock of Palau’s communications infrastructure for years, connecting the small island nation of Palau to the rest of the world. But undersea cables are vulnerable to damage. Palau’s national communications carrier, PNCC, was reminded of this when a planned week-long outage of Palau’s cable link to Guam took place (possibly triggered by Typhoon Mawar), limiting international internet access solely to critical services.

Determining it could no longer leave the island nation population exposed to the possibility of future connectivity interruptions, PNCC sought a satellite enabled solution that would offer redundancy and resiliency, ensuring continued connectivity to the remote island nation in a way that fiber alone simply could not offer.

Leveraging its 40 years of experience serving the Asia Pacific region and enhancing connectivity in remote island countries and territories, including in the Marshall Islands and Falkland Islands, Intelsat proposed an innovative approach that would not only address Palau’s need for resiliency but, at the same time, offer a scalable way to connect previously unconnected segments of Palau’s population – starting with those living in the country’s outermost islands of Hotohobei and Sonsorol, located 600 miles from the mainland and only reachable by a four day boat trip.  

Expanded access will give Palau’s economy room to grow, allowing more of its citizens to use government services, enjoy more entertainment options, as well as take advantage of telehealth and remote learning resources.