Commonwealth Pacific SIDS
Technology enablers
1. Connectivity
Unlike the Caribbean SIDS where all countries in the region are connected through at least two submarine cables, there are countries in the Pacific SIDS that are connected through only one cable. This presents a significant connectivity risk since the region is generally very seismically active.
While both fixed-broadband and mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants have increased over time in the Pacific SIDS, the pace of this increment has largely been uneven.
- Tuvalu has improved access to fixed-broadband connectivity.
- Countries like Fiji and Tonga have improved access to mobile-broadband connectivity but have limited access to fixed broadband connection.
- Countries like Nauru have managed to improve access to fixed broadband and mobile broadband. This explains why Nauru has the highest proportion of individuals in the region using the internet
Although electricity consumption has steadily increased for all Pacific SIDS over time, it is still considerably lower as compared with the world’s average. The low electricity consumption in the Pacific States could mean lower access to affordable electricity which is a major deterrent to the expansion of mobile broadband networks.
There is an increasing shift to mobile broadband and 4G connections. 4G alone is projected3 to account for over half of total connections by 2023. This has mostly been driven by the increasing rates of smartphone adoption due to falling smartphone prices and the emergence of new low-cost smartphone providers. Moreover, adoption is projected to grow to 65 per cent by 2025.
2. Mobile penetration
There is variation in the development of local mobile markets, as seen table here.
Overall, the Pacific Islands region is seeing only modest mobile subscriber growth at a time when its subscriber penetration rates remain below regional and global developed market averages.1
GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index
This chart compares the GSMA mobile connectivity indices for the Commonwealth member states as a measure of the enabling environments. All the assessed countries had index scores of less than 60. This score reveals a less enabling environment for digitalisation in the Pacific Island Countries than in the Caribbean Islands. It should also be noted that the island countries of Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati in the region had no GSMA index data.
Overall, this section compares the GSMA mobile connectivity indices for the Commonwealth member states as a measure of the enabling environments. All the assessed countries had index scores of less than 60. This score reveals a less enabling environment for digitalisation in the Pacific Island Countries than in the Caribbean Islands. It should also be noted that the island countries of Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati in the region had no GSMA index data.
GSMA mobile connectivity indices for Commonwealth Pacific SIDS (2019)
Australia & New Zealand
Technology enablers
1.Internet penetration rates
Australia and New Zealand have some of the highest proportions of people using the internet at 87 per cent and 91 per cent, respectively. The drivers of high internet penetration and connectivity are presented as follows:
Australia and New Zealand are connected internationally through marine and terrestrial cabling.
New Zealand currently has two major international submarine cables: Southern Cross (owned by Telecom, Singtel-Optun and Verizon Business) that connects New Zealand to the USA; and Tasman 2 (owned by Telstra & Telecom) connects New Zealand to Australia. Australia on the other hand, unlike other pacific island countries, has more than 12 cable landing stations, 16 on the West Coast and an additional five on the East Coast.2
Both countries have a considerably wider coverage of wireless broadband networks, with Australia ahead of all Pacific Island countries.
After launching 5G in 2019, Australia has some of the fastest mobile speeds in the world with median download speeds of 283.56 Mbps during the first quarter of 2021, nearly double the global average of 142.05 Mbps. This can be attributed in a large part to the years Australia, and its mobile operators have spent investing in 5G infrastructure across the country. Australia is widely anticipated to continue to be at the forefront of global 5G.3 In both New Zealand and Australia, the broadband coverage range of 4G networks is over 90 per cent of the national land area. Such high broadband connection rates in the three countries facilitate the deployment of IOT devices and real-time crop and animal monitoring infrastructure in agricultural operations.
2.Mobile penetration
In both Australia and New Zealand, mobile penetration is high. High penetration of mobile devices increases the adoptive potential of digital agriculture solutions.
Australia boasts 110.62 mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people and New Zealand 134.93.
Non-technology enablers
1.Sizes of agricultural land
Agriculture in both New Zealand and Australia is characterised by the presence of few farms, but of very large sizes.
Average farm sizes are are 10,702 acres (4,331 hectares) in Australia and 667 acres (270 hectares) in New Zealand. As seen in locations with similarly large commercial farming arrangements, farm sizes of more than 200 hectares are ideal for use of smart farming methods in order to recuperate return on investment, through more effective application of agricultural inputs like water, pesticides and fertilisers at scale.
2.High literacy rates
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development puts the adult literacy rates in both New Zealand and Australia over 95 per cent.
High levels of adult literacy mean that farmers do not have the literacy barrier to the consumption of digital solutions and have a much better appreciation of the role of technology in increasing the productive potential of agriculture.
3. Large-scale monoculture (growing one crop) as opposed to inter-cropping more than one crop on the same plot of land
Utilisation of aerial imagery is hard when more than one crop is grown on the same piece of land. Aerial imagery thrives in Australia and New Zealand because monoculture is practiced on a large scale in most existent farming operations.
Commonwealth Pacific SIDS
Non-technology barriers
1. Large rural populations
Most of the Pacific SIDS have large rural populations (more than 40 per cent of total population), and the majority are young, highly literate but unemployed.
High rural population coupled with high unemployment rates of largely youthful population limit effective contribution to the formal economic sector and effectively implies low amounts of disposable income to be spent on broadband connectivity and internet-enabled devices. This reduces the user base for digital agriculture solutions.
2. Occurrence of natural disasters
Between 2000 and 2016, the Pacific sub-region experienced 225 natural disasters, causing 1,752 fatalities, affecting 4.7 million people, and causing nearly US$ 50 billion (in 2005 USD) worth of damages.
In the short term, there may not be significant infrastructural damage, mobile network operators and internet service providers in the region still have to set aside funds to repair infrastructural damage in case of disasters. This greatly increases the operating expenditures for mobile network operators and drives up the costs of connectivity, a burden that is usually transferred to the consumers.
Footnotes
1 Global System for Mobile Communications (2019). The mobile economy in the Pacific island countries. https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GSMA_MobileEconomy2020_Pacific_Islands.pdf
2 Vodafone (2021). Mobile Coverage – Maps. Check out our 5G coverage. https://www.vodafone.co.nz/network/coverage/
3 Spark New Zealand (2021). Spark Network coverage and compatibility. https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/mobile/network.html