The Foundation applied for the 2010 and 2011 APT official projects in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, National Telecommunication Authority (NTA), etc. of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and conducted a communication connectivity experiment by combining femtocells*1) arranged by the Japan side and a satellite communication connection (VSAT) arranged by the Ministry of Communications of the Marshall Islands, to build sustainable and inexpensive networks at two locations of Majuro Atoll and Mejit Island.
In this project, we built a pilot network for realizing voice communications from Mejit Island and data communications such as Internet access by combining a satellite communication channel (DAMA) and GSM mobile communication networks for minimal lines (a few lines), which are an application of the femto base station that is optimum and inexpensive for remote island communications. We then conducted a communication experiment. In addition, we conducted a demonstration so that local people could utilize various applications effectively.
*1: Femtocell is a very small mobile-phone communication area with a radius of tens of meters for telecommunications. In English, it is an "Access Point Base Station." In this pilot project, to make it possible to utilize femto base stations, which are extremely small cells for mobile phones, as a network of the island, we have modified antennas to expand their coverage to about 500 m.
