1 SOLOMON ISLANDSabout Consists of 6 major Islands

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SOLOMON ISLANDS…about ØConsists of 6 major Islands, + thousands of smaller islands, more than half of which is inhabited. Ø 9 Provinces, having their provincial govt. bodies, affiliated to the main governing Body. ØCapital of Solomon Islands is known as Honiara, situated on the island of Guadalcanal ØPopulation of around 600, 000 (plus) ØMajority Melanesian, with Polynesian, Micronesian, Chinese ethnic as the next in terms of population. 2

SOLOMON TELEKOM CO. LTD. ØFormerly known as P & T (Post & Telecommunications), then changed to Sol. Tel and then later (till present) known as Solomon Telekom Co. Ltd. ØShare between Cable & Wireless (34. 33% share), NPF (National Provident Fund) (62. 85%), ICSI (Investment Corporation of Solomon Islands) (2. 82%). ØCurrently operating as a monopoly. ØSolomon Telekom is the only ISP operator in the Solomon Islands. ØOperates fixed lines, mobile, internet, leased circuits, radio, broadband, cc. TLD. ØPenetration level – managed to provide Telephony between all of the major Provincial capitals, and few other remote sites. ØSolomon Telekom employs something around 250 Staffs, Ranging from managers, engineers, technicians, personals, cleaners, security officers, drivers. ØWant to read more, go to http: //www. telekom. com. sb 3

SUBSCRIBERS’ COUNT ØFixed Lines: 6, 000 (plus). Telephone is provided in all provincial centres. ØMobile: 2, 000 (plus). GSM mobile is provided only in Honiara, with analogue mobile phones in the western region. ØE-mail Subscribers: 2, 500 (plus). ØWebsite Hosting: 23. These are sites hosted locally on our server. ØDomain name hosting: 105. The count is only for domains registered locally. ØBroadband (ADSL): 500 (plus). To date, this has only been implemented in the capital city, Honiara, with plans to eventually have it on all provincial capitals. ØDial-Up: 1, 600 (plus). The figure has decreased with introduction of ADSL broadband connection. 4

IS (INFORMATION SERVICES) DEPT. ØInformation Services Department is responsible for Internet services for both the country as a whole as well as for the corporate (Telekom) users. ØWithin this department we have the Billing, Data, Network/Support, ADSL and Internet section. ØWithin the Internet section, we have 2 senior engineers, 1 asst. engineer & 2 technicians, all reporting to the overall manager & asst. manager for the whole department. ØInternet Helpdesk section looks after the provisioning of Internet services, including Initial broadband (ADSL) provisioning, dial-up setup, email hosting, website hosting, domain registration and other DNS issues. 5

cc. TLD STRUCTURE Ø. sb country code top-level domain for the Solomon Islands. ØSolomon Telekom Co. Ltd. is the authority (Regulator) for. sb cc. TLD. ØWe have three main players in the running of. sb domain name. §Solomon Telekom Co. Ltd. : Regulator as well as registrar (for local subscribers) §Aus. Registry International Pty. Ltd. : Registry §TPP Internet: Registrar (for overseas subscribers) ØWe sell. com. sb, . org. sb, . edu. sb, . gov. sb &. net. sb. ØSolomon Telekom hosts two DNS servers, both located locally. ØBoth servers run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. ØBoth machines are HP. 6

ACCOUNTING PROCESS & COSTS Regulator (. sb Authority) SBD$37. 91 Registrant Local Registrar US$13 Solomon Telekom Co. Ltd. Subscribers ? ? Overseas Registrar US$25 TPP Internet Registrants pays Registrars pays Registry pays Regulator Aus. Registry charges on quarterly (3 months) basis Solomon Telekom charges on monthly basis Registry Aus. Registry 7

POLICY & ISSUES ØOperates on a first come first serve basis. ØDisputes are resolved between Regulator (Telekom) & Customer. We haven’t had any record of disputes with domain names, but feel we should opt for a better resolution process setup before we come across any big issue. ØRegulator (Telekom) has the right to reject a domain name application. . gov. sb is highly moderated while others, we tend to process as applicable with little less moderation. ØDomain names are deleted from the Authorative server (with Aus. Registry) as well as our name servers on cut-off (bill due) dates. There hasn’t been any case where two parties had a dispute over a domain name (locally) before or after it had expired. 8

FUTURE PLANS ØReplace both DNS servers §Both current servers run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 but have decided to Go with Free. BSD on the two new ones. ØRe-locate secondary server on a different location (different island). Talks have been on having one in another country but haven’t been seriously considered yet. ØReview current agreement we had with TPP Internet & Aus. Registry. ØGet all in the Internet Services section up to par with everyone’s primary tasks, which includes cc. TLD issues. 9

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