The developers of the 03B satellite network have told Fiji’s ICT blog Coconut Wireless (www.coconutwireless.wordpress.com) that Pacific islands countries will need not wait for undersea communication cable projects to get cost effective and quality international connectivity.  
In a conference call with O3B Regional Sales director Nara Sihavong and regional sales team Mike Serrano and John Dick, Coconut Wireless was told of O3B’s plans for the Pacific as well as the latest progress.
“O3B’s presence at the PTC ‘09 in Honolulu was the kick-off of its efforts in the Pacific,” said the blog.  
The company’s preliminary assessment is that an island would pay around US$600 per megabit per second of throughput, plus an initial activation fee for the ground equipment of about US$350,000 for orders placed by May 2009.
“It was at PTC ‘09 where they revealed details of their plans to offer improved connectivity to the islands.  
"The recent ITU meeting in Tonga (the ITU-organised Pacific ICT Ministers’ meeting) was part of this effort and the O3B team met with ministerial level delegates to pave the way for further talks in Pacific islands nations.  
"Nara then spent a week in Fiji, where he held meetings and discussions with the telecom operators.  
"He reports an enthusiastic response from the operators and adds that he sees the business development units within these companies moving with an urgency that reveals their understanding of what increased competition means for market dynamics.”
O3B Networks is a new project emerging from the United States and which aims to provide connectivity for the “other 3 billion” (hence O3B) people on the planet believed to be still without any form of communication services.
This project is being supported by a number of big names in ICT including Google Inc. Word from the recent meeting of ICT ministers in Tonga reveal a measure of enthusiasm and anticipation for the O3B project.
With competition imminent or already progressing in the region, putting more and more people on the Internet and on mobile telephone services, the bandwidth to allow all that to happen is expected to grow.
In the expectation of this growth, islands countries in the Pacific have been exploring a number of connectivity projects.   
Typically for international communication in these islands, Internet capacity is delivered either through a submarine cable or satellite network.  
The regional project SPIN (South Pacific Information Network) is an example of a submarine cable project that Pacific countries are exploring while OB3 is an example of a satellite network service that has just been added to their list of options.