As health authorities advise us that Fiji is experiencing a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic we sigh in weariness – just when the border’s started opening and limited international travel to Fiji has resumed, this third wave threatens to sabotage Fiji’s economic recovery based on tourism dollars.
At this time of the year, we usually look hopefully forward to a New Year – better than last year with the devastation of the pandemic escaping border control lockdowns back in March 2021 and the subsequent stringent access protocols including mandatory masks in public areas and pretty successful national vaccination rollout.
Working from home (WFH) has become the new norm and with it came the exponential increase in cyberattacks on WFH staffers who were not prepared for this cyber deluge.
IT personnel were also placed under a lot of pressure to manage this change in paradigm and many are now registering as suffering from post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) similar to medical frontline workers during this pandemic and can also be found in front-line soldiers in war.
I took some time to look back over 25 years ago to the origin of commercial internet in Fiji which occurred around December 1995. I was fortunate to be one of two project engineers from Telecom Fiji that worked with an Australian consultant – Andy Linton – in designing and setting up the Internet services infrastructure at the TFL Suva exchange in Ganilau House. Andy, an Irishman by birth, was instrumental in the setting up and maintenance of Janet – the European part of the Internet back in the 1980s.
He could recall a time when he knew many of the Internet users – mainly academics, either by their nicknames or online identities. A bygone era of innocence when as kids, we still climbed mango trees in our backyards and rode our bicycles around the neighbourhood.
Today, most internet users probably don’t have English as their first language and just as organised crime or previously unheard of crimes of illicit drugs and human trafficking moved into innocent neighbourhoods, the same has occurred on the internet and darknet part of it. At the time a six-month pilot internet service was being trialed in Fiji with the assistance of regional organisations, donor agencies and governments mainly Australia and New Zealand and the telecommunications monopolies – FINTEL, FPTL and Telecom New Zealand.
A 64kbps data link to the internet was being provided through Waikato University, NZ. This was the same year the World Wide Web (WWW) was just being launched commercially. There was no Google, Amazon and definitely no Facebook (MySpace did exist for a time) – these were to emerge years later as infrastructure matured and broadband internet became mainstream.
The hub in Fiji was located in FPTL’s Suva Exchange and comprised of four servers running a unix-based (BSD) OS, a terminal servers and a bank of 32 analog Netcomm 14.4kbps modems (I kid you not). This is how the fi rst trial customers would dial-in to access the internet. The four servers were named after the popular cartoon characters from the Simpsons – Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa. The first per-minute Internet access charges were debated at that bastion of business deals in Suva – Traps Bar.
Shailesh Singh (senior project engineer) favoured charging 30 cents/minute and I was pushing for 20 cents/minute. In the end we compromised on 25 cents/ minute.
Thus was born the first commercial rate for dial-up Internet services in Fiji. Was there a commercial justification for this? Not really – we just had to have a number that was higher than the unlimited local 12 cents flag fall and 20c per minute toll calls within Fiji.
Note that standard international calls to Australia and New Zealand at the time were over $2 per minute.
The voice public switched telephone network (PSTN) or just plain old telephone system (POTS) was not designed for Internet services especially when the average analog voice call was four minutes and the average Internet call would be 25 – 30 minutes initially (think email only with minimal web browsing). With the Internet hub located in Suva, this complicated matters as calls were longlined (tying up telephone circuits) from all over Fiji to Suva.
This loaded the exchanges and circuits so to cut through all the techno-babble, basically Internet services started causing major Telecom network congestions.
Shailesh and I were busy trying to justify the commercial viability of Internet services to Telecom executives and board members whilst rolling out the service to dial-up residential and corporate clients all over Fiji and managing the engineering side so nothing fell over.
At the time Compuserve and America Online (AOL) services were used by businessmen and companies in the region but costs were prohibitive to most customers in Fiji and the Pacific.
These services, whilst offering a restricted version of the Internet, are more walledgarden type services. Email being the biggest application – it still is today! In our pioneering work we probably spent about as much time in public/private corporate board rooms talking to senior management and board members, in conventions centers for annual conventions as in the Telecom exchange and the Internet engineering hub itself.
The rest, as they say, is history. Commercial viability was achieved within the 6-month trial and this was the historical origins of the ATH/TFL Brand – Connect Internet Services. From humble beginnings as a trial this was the commencement of the commercial Internet 1.0 in Fiji and the end of an era of the open academic and controlled military versions of the Internet.
What does the future look like?
Internet/Web 3.0, NFTs and cryptocurrencies plus all the versions thereof. I’ve just described Internet/Web 1.0 installation in Fiji.
Internet 2.0 is more social media, content and user interactions – the rise of AliBaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal etc…we’re already moving into a decentralised Internet/Web 3.0, DeFi, DeSo etc.
If nothing else, the pandemic has forced a digital transformation upon people’s lives and the way we interact – from working from home, to video-conferencing meetings, conventions and webinars.
The next level just decentralises this control. Here’s acknowledgement of some of the many IT personnel and experts involved in the pilot Internet project 1995-96 – from SOPAC (now part of SPC) Franck Martin, the late Les Allinson (manager IT), former Fiji director Communications – Josua Turaganivalu, the late Dr. Sunil Kumar (USP FJ Domain name registrar/technical expert) Kevin Maitava (manager ITS, USP), Peni Sigabalavu (former helpdesk intern and current manager client services, USP), Telecom Fiji, FINTEL, TNZ and Waikato University engineers, management and board members.
Forum Secretariat policy analysts and operations team and the list goes on. My apologies for not naming you all personally, as they were so many people involved in all aspects of the Internet trial, and I was privileged to work with you all in whatever capacity.
When feeling discouraged about the pandemic, its impact on Fiji, the region, our people and our state of affairs, remember a wiser man than us once accurately summed it up – “This too shall pass…” Stay safe and blessed and wishing you all a Prosperous New Year!
ILAITIA TUISAWAU is a private cybersecurity consultant. The views expressed in this article are his and not necessarily shared by this newspaper. Mr Tuisawau can be contacted on ilaitia@cyberbati. com
