Is Papua New Guinea really on a Break-through in Techonlogy?

Accessing Broadband Internet via HF Radio has stirred a lot of interesting companies in Papua New Guinea and the World. Interest in the new technology has given Telikom the run for its money especially with the looming competition with GreenCom and Digicel.

A good friend of mine pointed out something that arouses my interest so I decided to share with you my readers. So what’s that curiosity about?? It’s about JINDALEE!! Let me quote this article

“Australia is using a sophisticated new radar network that can detect stealth bombers, curb illegal immigration and spy on neighboring nations from at least 3000 kilometers away. The $A1.8 billion Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) has taken more than 30 years to complete but is now undergoing final trials. JORN is designed to monitor air and sea movements across 37,000km of largely unprotected coastline and 9 million square kilometers of ocean. It is being used to cast a security shield across Australia's remote northern approaches without the high cost of maintaining constant maritime and air patrols.” View here

So can you see my line of thoughts yet?? Not quite??.....Okay……here are some more…
"JORN is the front-line of Australia's wide area surveillance capability and is likely to remain so for at least the next two decades," Mr. Ric Smith, Australia’s Secretary for Defense, said” View here

Still not seeing where I am coming?? Here is the last one
“The Jindaleee Radar System was a great example of the Australian ability to think outside the square. Scientists concluded that if the bomber could not be detected, perhaps the turbulence it makes passing through air could be. While standard radar sends a signal along line of sight until it bounces off a target ship or aircraft, Jindalee bounces signals off the ionosphere, which lies above the stratosphere and extends about 1000 kilometers above Earth. The signal then bounces down onto its target.” View here

The Broadband Internet via HF Radio uses the IONOSPEHRE to bounce of it’s signal as in my earlier posts……the Jindalee Radar System also uses the IONOSPEHRE to bounce of its’ signal. So if we can develop the system and build our communication network using the proposed project, Papua New Guinea will be looking to match Australia in its security effort.

But the only difference will be the cost. We can build the protective shield to detect stealth bombers for only $1.8 million while Australia’s is $1.8 billion…of course….they may be other infrastructural costs as well….but I’m just being funny here.

So can Papua New Guinea move forward now??? Lets wait and see!!

Broadband Internet via HF Radio

Last time I posted something about accessing Email on HF Radio. Well, things have now changed. No longer can you just access email on HF Radio but you can also access broadband internet via the HF Radio. You can surf the net, watch TV, do Video Conference and so much more. This is all thanks to the Brilliance of one Papua New Guinean, Wilfred Amai.

Wilfred who owns Skylink Technology is putting Papua New Guinea at the Top of the World. PNG has now an alternative to satellite dish. Gone are the days of satellite, gone are the days of cables. PNG will go wireless and be the FIRST in the World to access Broadband via HF Radio. It is just as similar as using Email on HF Radio, but the only difference is SPEED.

It is a thousand times faster and you can download a 34Mbytes data less than 3 seconds and the speed is increasing. He is working on developing the speed to reach Giga bytes per second. It seems impossible at first but Wilfred as discovered an innovative NEW technology that has been PATENT in Australia. No-one can copy his work.

So the war is brewing now, as we have just made a presentation to Telikom and already Digicel is calling for another presentation.


More to come!!

==================================================

Skylink:
SKYLINK Communication Limited is an IPA registered 100% Papua New Guinean owned company specializing in the research and development of innovative Communication Systems.

The main vision of the company is to develop and market a cheaper and more robust communication system that is user friendly and as an alternative to existing systems of telecommunication. The company derived its inspiration from the fact that PNG’s geographical and topographical setting rendered telecommunication in PNG very unreliable, ineffective and costly.

Rationale of behind the use of Ionosphere
The ionosphere is the upper most part of the atmosphere and is ionised by solar radiation. This gives ionosphere its property to refract radio waves such as short-wave. When using High Frequency bands, the ionosphere is utilized to reflect the transmitted radio beam. The beam returns to the earth’s surface, and then be reflected back into the ionosphere for a second bounce. The ionosphere in its sense acts as a satellite for Radio waves.

Ionosphere at 300km in the atmosphere will refract HF communication signals carrying large amount of data in real time improving on delay effects experienced by geo-stationary satellites at 36 000km.

The present invention relates generally to a data transmission system and in particular to a system for transmitting and receiving data at very high speed over a standard wireless HF communication link. Although HF radio frequency data transmission systems have been in existence for many years, no one has yet found a way to transmit large volumes of audio, video and data content in a real time, high speed environment. What that means is that this new invention can now enable people to send and access large volumes of data (through the internet) cheaply using the HF system everywhere, including rural areas.

This high speed communication system has also been developed to ensure the security of data communicated through the network, whilst redundancy has also been built into its systems so as to maintain uptime as much as possible.

Redundancy means having alternate routes for data traffic to be routed in the event of the default route malfunctioning. Redundancy also means having backup power in the likely event that main power goes off. It means building ‘intelligence’ into the network to enable it to automatically adapt to failing data traffic routes without human intervention i.e. the use of routers with automatically updated routing tables constantly determining the next best route.

In terms of compatibility, this communication system is compatible with all standard internationally approved equipment. This allows all types of computers and peripherals to be connected to the network. In fact, the system has been initially trialled in the presence of PANGTEL in January of this year, 2007, to ensure that it complied with regulatory standards of the use of the HF channel and that it didn’t interfere with other commercial users of the Radio Frequency Spectrum in any illegal way.

The trial involved downloading a 22 megabyte file in approximately 20 seconds using a narrow channel standard HF frequency at around 4.920 MHz. This translates into a speed of approximately 9 or 10 Mbps. This is more than 3,000 times faster than a commercial HF data transmission system. That is because commercial HF Data communication systems are only known to be able to work at speeds of up to around 24 kbps at the most. Apart from government and corporate dignitaries, there were also technical specialists from PANGTEL and other HF communications companies present at the trials to verify the system.

World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation

A year ago, I had the opportunity to attend the launching of the World Development Report for 2007 in Singapore. This launching coincided with the IMF/World Bank annual meeting for the year. The Report was focused on young people and is titled Development and the Next Generation. This particular report is interesting as it recognizes the importance of young people and encourages governments to invest in youths.

What is World Development Report?
The World Bank's annual World Development Report (WDR) is an invaluable guide to the economic, social and environmental state of the world today. Each year the WDR provides in depth analysis of a specific aspect of development. Past reports have considered such topics as the role of the state, transition economies, labor, infrastructure, health, the environment, and poverty. The reports are the Bank's best-known contribution to thinking about development.
World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation.
So why is the World Bank interested in young people? Two simple reasons

Reason One

• “There’s never been a better time than now for countries to invest in the next generation”
• There has been an enormous progress over the past 30 years in terms of education world wide and the decrease in infant mortality
• But this progress brings further challenges such as, “Are there enough jobs? Does the education prepare us for the daily lives? We encourage more primary education, but what about secondary education?”

Reason Two

• We have the largest Youth Bulge ever
• The youth bulge in the population pyramid due to decreasing fertility rate and growing aging population
• Falling fertility rate leads to lower demographic dependence (a lot more working population) however this dependence will increase eventually in some countries due to the aging population.
• Policies and institution matters- human capital and skills development
• Which paths do developing countries follow?

The WDR lists the success and pitfalls in some countries.
The 2007 Report: Development and the Next Generation uses five transitional stages that youths go through in life and uses those transitional phase to find gaps for investment. These transitional stages are: Going to School, Staying healthy, finding a Job, Leaving home & starting a family and Exercising citizenship.

According to the World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation, developing countries which invest in better education, healthcare, and job training for their record numbers of young people between the ages of 12 and 24 years of age, could produce surging economic growth and sharply reduced poverty.

With 1.3 billion young people now living in the developing world-the largest-ever youth group in history-the report says there has never been a better time to invest in youth because they are healthier and better educated than previous generations, and they will join the workforce with fewer dependents because of changing demographics.

"Such large numbers of young people living in developing countries present great opportunities, but also risks," says François Bourguignon, the World Bank's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.

"The opportunities are great, as many countries will have a larger, more skilled labor force and fewer dependents. But these young people must be well-prepared in order to create and find good jobs."

The World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation use three lenses to look at social issues affecting young people around the world. Expanding Opportunity, Enhancing Capacities and providing Second Chances.

• Opportunity to build skills and safe guard them e.g. education, relevance of the education system.
• Opportunity to be heard, positive ways to make that mark e.g. Brazil’s consultation with youth before policies are made
• Is there support for young people to help them make right choices? E.g. In Bangladesh there are bank accounts in the names of girls as they were willing to study and remain unmarried until they do so this has helped increase the enrolment rate of girls in terms of education. It was very successful.
• Second chances to allow young people to get back on track and recover
• To ensure that there are no parallel system for those who have succeed and those who fail.
• Restoration rather than retribution

"Most developing countries have a short window of opportunity to get this right before their record numbers of youth become middle-aged, and they lose their demographic dividend. This isn't just enlightened social policy. This may be one of the profound decisions a developing country will ever make to banish poverty and galvanize its economy," says Emmanuel Jimenez, lead author of the report, and Director of Human Development in the World Bank's East Asia and the Pacific Department.

Pacific Youth Advocacy Training

Last time I wrote something about the Youth Coalition and what they are doing. Anyway, the same Youth Coalition is holding a Pacific Youth Advocacy Training at Nadi, Fiji in December 5th – 9th 2007.

So what really is the Youth Coalition??

YC is an international organization of young people between the ages of 15 & 29 committed to promoting youth sexual and reproductive rights at the national, regional and international levels. We are students, researchers, volunteers, educators, and activists.

The Youth Coalition envisions a world where the diversities of all young people are respected and celebrated, and where they are empowered and supported to fully and freely exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.

We believe that sexual and reproductive rights are human rights, and therefore apply equally to young people. As young people, we have a valuable contribution to make to society and must be given a voice in all policy and decision-making processes that is respected and fully incorporated.
The Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (YC) is an international network of like-minded young advocates (aged 15-29) who are promoting sexual and reproductive rights of young people internationally. They are students, researchers, volunteers, educators, NGO (non-governmental organization) workers, and activists. The YC was formed during a meeting on the 5-year review of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5). Our activities are focused around three main areas: awareness raising, training, and information.


Pacific Youth Advocacy Training

The Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights is calling for applications to participate in training on sexual and reproductive rights, youth participation and advocacy. This 5-day training will bring together approximately 10 youth activists from the Pacific region. Participants will gain knowledge on the many aspects of sexual and reproductive rights and youth participation as well as advocacy tools to promote young people’s rights.

The application form for the training is attached. The YC is keen to receive applications from young people who:

· Fall between the ages of 15 – 29
· Have basic knowledge in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights or another related field (i.e. gender equity, HIV/AIDS, youth participation, trafficking of young women, sexual orientation etc.).
· Are affiliated with an organisation/have some experience in working in the area of sexual and reproductive right or another related field (i.e. youth sexual health clinic, studies in related field, political work on youth issues etc.).
· Have a working knowledge of English AND can communicate proficiently in English with other training participants.
· Youth from the Pacific Islands and indigenous youth from Australia and New Zealand.

Please note that only those who fit the above criteria will be considered.