Bebo transforms remote Pacific youth

Fairfax Media

BEBO KIDS: Tokelau's three atolls have no airport nor harbour but its wireless Internet service means its three schools and three hospitals are all online - and its kids are setting up their own Bebo pages.

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You cannot get any more remote than Tokelau but thanks to the internet and Bebo its people are going through a social revolution.

Tokelau's three atolls have no airport nor harbour and are two days sailing away from Samoa and just two years ago its 1100 Polynesians looked and sounded like they were in another time and space in the past.

Now they have free broadband.

And they're using Skype and Bebo to maintain connections with their 8000 "Tokes", as they call their friends and cousins, in New Zealand.

Bebo has more Tokelauan registrations now than people living in Tokelau - which last week voted to stay part of New Zealand.

Their Internet operation - Dot TK - has been controversial and earlier this year Internet security company McAfee warned anything associated with Tokelau on the net was "unusually risky" and was associated with fake websites and emails offering ``security alerts'' from banks.

The atoll's local government-owned TeleTok Corporation has sold off domain name registrations to a Dutch company BV Dot TK, owned by Joost Zuurbier. It is now one of the world's top domain registries with 1.7 million active domain names, all ending in Dot TK.

But today in a London statement Mr Zuurbier said "due to the enormous growth in the last couple of weeks Dot TK has decided, together with the government of Tokelau, to temporarily stop the registry for paid domains".

The suspension will remain in force until December 3 although the company continues to offer free registrations.

The company wants to verify registered trademarks. The company is also trying to install security to catch fake sites.

TeleTok general manager Tino Vitale said they had seen an enormous increase in new registrations.

"But with our small community of just over 1,000 people we don't want any problems with corporations wanting to protect their trademarks."

BV Dot Tk and TeleTok have not disclosed how much their venture is worth. Mr Zuurbier says his company's payments amount to 12 per cent of Tokelau's gross domestic product each year which on current figures equates to $235,000 a year.

The more obvious benefit on the atolls themselves is the free broadband - of variable quality because it links up with the rest of the world by satellite.

It has seen a big growth in computing; from 12 computers in 2001 to 200.

Tokelau has no Internet cafes - in fact it has no cafes at all and its solitary bar, the Luna Liki Hotel on Nukunonu, serves warm beer - when it has any. But a good Internet wireless service embraces the tiny islands that house the people. The three schools and three hospitals are all online and the service is being upgraded to a high-speed satellite service.

To any regular visitor to Tokelau it's obvious the net is changing things; word has it every child has a Bebo page and downloading music in legendary quantities - without paying a cent.

- © Fairfax NZ News