Page 5 of 7 Pacific Island States A cursory look at the
geography of the Pacific Island States would suggest that any
technology that could enhance communications among these island
states and with the rest of the world would be critical. The
situation, however, is far from rosy. In terms of the ICT
Opportunity Index, they all fall behind the Asia Pacific average
and only French Polynesia and New Caledonia hover around the
global average—the former slightly ahead, the latter slightly
behind. All other states fall considerably short of the global
average (Figure 5). In Networks (not shown, as it is not
fundamentally different), all countries are below the regional
and global averages. Among the island states in this group, New
Caledonia leads in main lines, cellphones (with a much higher
penetration than the others at 56.7 per cent—up from 31 per cent
in 2001) and Internet penetration (Table 2). In terms of levels,
main lines are relatively high also in French Polynesia, Tonga
and Fiji. Cell-phone penetration