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

3. 3 SOLOMON TELEKOM CO. LTD.  Formerly known as P & T (Post & Telecommunications), then changed to SolTel and then later (till present) known as Solomon Telekom Co. Ltd.  Share between Cable & Wireless (34.33% share), NPF (National Provident Fund) (62.85%), ICSI (Investment Corporation of Solomon Islands) (2.82%).  Currently operating as a monopoly.  Operates fixed lines, mobile, internet, leased circuits, radio, broadband, ccTLD.  Penetration level – managed to provide Telephony between all of the major Provincial capitals, and few other remote sites.  Solomon Telekom employs something around 250 Staffs, Ranging from managers, engineers, technicians, personals, cleaners, security officers, drivers.  Solomon Telekom is the only ISP operator in the Solomon Islands.  Want to read more, go to http://www.telekom.com.sbhttp://www.telekom.com.sb

4. 4 SUBSCRIBERS’ COUNT  Fixed Lines: 6,000 (plus). Telephone is provided in all provincial centres.  Mobile: 2,000 (plus). GSM mobile is provided only in Honiara, with analogue mobile phones in the western region.  E-mail Subscribers: 2,500 (plus).  Website Hosting: 23. These are sites hosted locally on our server.  Domain name hosting: 105. The count is only for domains registered locally.  Broadband (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.  Dial-Up: 1,600 (plus). The figure has decreased with introduction of ADSL broadband connection.

5. 5 IS (INFORMATION SERVICES) DEPT.  Information Services Department is responsible for Internet services for both the country as a whole as well as for the corporate (Telekom) users.  Within this department we have the Billing, Data, Network/Support, ADSL and Internet section.  Within 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.  Internet 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.

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

7. 7 ACCOUNTING PROCESS & COSTS Regulator (.sb Authority) Local Registrar Overseas Registrar Registry TPP Internet AusRegistry Solomon Telekom Co. Ltd. Registrant Subscribers ?? US$25 US$13 SBD$37.91 Registrants pays Registrars Registrars pays Registry Registry pays Regulator AusRegistry charges on quarterly (3 months) basis Solomon Telekom charges on monthly basis

8. 8 POLICY & ISSUES  Operates on a first come first serve basis.  Disputes 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.  Regulator (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.  Domain names are deleted from the Authorative server (with AusRegistry) 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.

9. 9 FUTURE PLANS  Replace both DNS servers  Both current servers run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 but have decided to Go with FreeBSD on the two new ones.  Re-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.  Review current agreement we had with TPP Internet & AusRegistry.  Get all in the Internet Services section up to par with everyone’s primary tasks, which includes ccTLD issues.

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