This report is the results of a study on the costing, operational principles and possible modalities of a Pacific Internet Exchange Point (IXP). The study follows an initial report - Pacific-IX Desktop Feasibility Study by Dr Paul Brooks – that was completed in December 2019.

The conclusions from the initial study Pacific-IX Desktop Feasibility Study states:

This study found that the collection of Pacific island member and associate members states of ESCAP (hereinafter referred to as Pacific Islands) are generally well connected by subsea cables, with many nations connected by at least one cable, and many particularly in the southern section connected (or soon to be connected) by two cables and in some cases more than two. While there are still some countries reliant on satellite connectivity and not connected by any subsea cable (notably Tuvalu, and Nauru), these are in the minority.

This study determined that the Pacific Islands were split into two distinct zones – a northern zone surrounding the island of Guam, and a southern zone clustered loosely between Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. These two zones are significantly far apart, and no subsea cable connects the two zones together. Any traffic between a northern zone country and a southern zone country must pass through either Australia, or the USA either in Hawaii or the west coast of the USA mainland. As there are already very large, well-connected IXPs near the cable landings in Australia and USA, these IXPs will always be closer and provide more benefit to a Pacific island than any IXP located within the other Pacific zone. These characteristics make it infeasible for a single IXP to serve all Pacific islands, however each zone has a recommended IXP solution that should provide significant performance and efficiency benefits for each Pacific island.