1.
Cook Islands
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The Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total area is 240 square kilometres. The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone, however, covers 1,800,000 square kilometres of ocean, the Cook Islands defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, but they are exercised in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, the Cook Islands main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga, where there is an international airport. There is a population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand. In the 2006 census,58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Islands Māori descent, the Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and American Samoa. There are 15 major islands spread over 2,200,000 km2 of ocean, the islands were formed by volcanic activity, the northern group is older and consists of six atolls, which are sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth. The climate is moderate to tropical, palmerston Island sometimes grouped with the Northern Group. Manuae Winslow Reef The Cook Islands were first settled in the 6th century by Polynesian people who migrated from Tahiti, in 1813 John Williams, a missionary on the Endeavour made the first recorded sighting of Rarotonga. The first recorded landing on Rarotonga by Europeans was in 1814 by the Cumberland, the islands saw no more Europeans until missionaries arrived from England in 1821. Christianity quickly took hold in the culture and many continue to be Christian believers today. The Cook Islands became a British protectorate in 1888, due largely to community fears that France might occupy the territory as it had Tahiti, on 6 September 1900, the leading islanders presented a petition asking that the islands should be annexed as British territory. These instruments did not include Aitutaki and it appears that, though the inhabitants regarded themselves as British subjects, the Crowns title was uncertain, and the island was formally annexed by Proclamation dated 9 October 1900. The islands were included within the boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand in 1901 by Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act,1895 of the United Kingdom. The boundary change became effective on 11 June 1901 and the Cook Islands have had a relationship with New Zealand ever since. When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, the country remained a New Zealand dependent territory until 1965, when the New Zealand Government decided to offer self-governing status to its colony. In that year, Albert Henry of the Cook Islands Party was elected as the first Premier, Henry led the country until he was accused of vote-rigging
2.
O3b Networks
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O3b Networks, Ltd. is a network communications service provider building and operating a medium Earth orbit satellite constellation. The network combines the relatively large reach of satellite with high speed and medium latency to deliver satellite Internet services, the company was founded by Greg Wyler in 2007. The name O3b stands for Other 3 Billion, referring to the population of the world where broadband Internet is not available without help. O3b is financially backed by SES, Google, HSBC, Liberty Global, Allen & Company, Northbridge Venture Partners, Soroof International, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Sofina and Satya Capital. In April 2016, SES announced that it will pay $20 million to increase its fully diluted ownership of O3b from 49. 1% to 50. 5%, O3b is primarily intended to serve mobile operators and Internet service providers, providing for voice and data. After initially planning to launch in 2010, the first four satellites were launched on June 25,2013, a further four satellites were launched in July 2014, and another four in December 2014. Four more are scheduled for launch in 2018 and the four in 2019, bringing the constellation to 20 satellites. Operators in the Cook Islands, Pakistan and Nigeria were among the first to prebook capacity on the O3b constellation to serve their respective markets. O3b also announced a contract with ViaSat for the production and installation of Ka-band infrastructure indicating significant progress in the deployment of O3b’s Next Generation Network, the value of the ViaSat contract is approximately $47 million. The company has recently had a change of CEO once financial closure had been obtained, mark Rigolle, the former Chief Finance Officer of SES is returning to SES. This change marks the 5th CEO for O3b in three years, O3b has also recently raised a total of $1.2 billion to fully finance the construction of its satellites. The first four satellites were launched on a Soyuz-2 /Fregat-MT rocket by Arianespace on June 25,2013 at 19,27,03 UTC, and are currently in orbit and functioning properly. After discovering a hardware defect in the satellites, O3b postponed the planned September 2013 launch of four additional satellites so repairs could be made. The second four satellites were launched by the type of rocket from the Space Center in French Guiana. The third launch of four took place in December 2014, in November 2014, MS Quantum of the Seas became the first cruise ship to provide fast internet to guests through O3b Networks. The service is branded Voom by its line, Royal Caribbean International. In May 2016, SES said that O3b had a backlog of $350 million. In August 2016, SES Government Solutions announced a contract to provide an O3b Networks high throughput, the contract also provides for additional capacity to meet surge requirements
3.
Spark New Zealand
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Spark New Zealand is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider, and a major ICT provider to NZ businesses. It has operated as a publicly traded company since 1990, Spark is one of the largest companies by value on the New Zealand Exchange. As of 2007, it was the 39th largest telecommunications company in the OECD, the company is part of New Zealand Telecommunications Forum. Telecom New Zealand was formed in 1987 from a division of the New Zealand Post Office and this separation effectively ended any remnants of monopoly that Telecom Retail once had in the market. In 2011 the demerger process was complete, with Telecom and Chorus becoming separate listed companies, on 8 August 2014, the company changed its name to Spark New Zealand. The selling price of Telecom was considered by some to be extremely low, in 1990, Telecom was sold to two United States-based telecommunications companies, Bell Atlantic and Ameritech, for NZ$4.25 billion. Around the same time, the Kiwi Share agreement was drawn up, also in 1990, Clear Communications entered the New Zealand telecommunications market and so was the first network to compete with Telecom. In 1991, Telecom listed on the New Zealand, Australian, the following year Telecom implemented a NZ$200 million fibre-optic cable connection between Australia and New Zealand. Also in this year, Roderick Deane was appointed CEO of the company, Clear Communications reached an agreement with Telecom in 1995 on local service interconnection. Also in 1995 Telecom created First Media Ltd to develop a television network across Auckland and Wellington. In 1996 Telecom established an exchange in the United States for international traffic, and launched Xtra. 1997 saw Telecom buy back NZ$1 Billion of its shares, in December 1997 Patricia Reddy was appointed to the Telecom board. She remained on it until 2008, in March 2016 as Dame Patsy Reddy she was appointed Governor General designate of New Zealand. In 1999, Telecom established a presence in Australia, buying 78% of AAPT, Telecom upgraded its nationwide payphone network to smart card technology. Telecoms broadband Internet service based on ADSL technology, called JetStream, was launched, also at this time, Telecom began charging customers who connected to the Internet using a local dial up number, forcing all ISPs in New Zealand to change to an 0867 dial up number. This resulted in complaints that this was in breach of Telecoms Kiwishare Agreement where residential customers are allowed free local calling, the decade was rounded off with Theresa Gattung being appointed new CEO of Telecom, with Rod Deane moving to the position of chairman. In 2000, Xtra signed up its 300, 000th customer, Telecom also raised its shareholding in AAPT to 100%. Evidence emerged in early 2002 of Telecom having exploited an ill-considered, or fraudulently made to order and this standard required holding companies to incorporate profits and losses of associate companies into their group accounts by way of equity accounting except when the associate is insolvent
4.
Telex
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The telex network is a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network, for the purposes of sending text-based messages. The term refers to the network, not the teleprinters, point-to-point teleprinter systems had been in use long before telex exchanges were formed starting in the 1930s. Teleprinters evolved from systems, and like the telegraph they used the presence or absence of a pre-defined level of current to represent the mark or space symbols. This is as opposed to the telephone system, which used differing voltages to encode frequency information. For this reason, telex exchanges were entirely separate from the system, with their own signalling standards, exchanges. When telephone and telex exchange equipment was co-located, which was not uncommon, Telex provided the first common medium for international record communications using standard signalling techniques and operating criteria as specified by the International Telecommunication Union. Customers on any telex exchange could deliver messages to any other, to lower line usage, telex messages were normally first encoded onto paper tape and then read into the line as quickly as possible. The system normally delivered information at 50 baud or approximately 66 words per minute encoded using the International Telegraph Alphabet No.2, Telex began in Germany as a research and development program in 1926 that became an operational teleprinter service in 1933. The service, operated by the Reichspost had a speed of 50 baud — approximately 66 words per minute, Telex service spread within Europe and around the world. By 1978, West Germany, including West Berlin, had 123,298 telex connections, long before automatic telephony became available, most countries, even in central Africa and Asia, had at least a few high-frequency telex links. Often, government postal and telegraph services initiated these radio links, the most common radio standard, CCITT R.44 had error-corrected retransmitting time-division multiplexing of radio channels. Most impoverished PTTs operated their telex-on-radio channels non-stop, to get the value from them. The cost of TOR equipment has continued to fall, modern cablegrams or telegrams actually operate over dedicated telex networks, using TOR whenever required. Telex served as the forerunner of modern fax, email, abbreviated English as used in texting originated with telex operators exchanging informal messages in real time — they became the first texters long before the introduction of mobile phones. Telex users could send the message to several places around the world at the same time, like email today. This involved transmitting the message via paper tape to the InfoMaster Computer, in this way, a single message could be sent to multiple distant Telex and TWX machines as well as delivering the same message to non-Telex and non-TWX subscribers via Western Union Mailgram. Telex messages are routed by addressing them to an address, e. g.14910 ERIC S. Solutions also exist for the routing of messages to different telex terminals within a subscriber organization, by using different terminal identities
5.
Ground station
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For stations controlling unmanned aerial vehicles, see Ground control station. Ground stations may be located either on the surface of the Earth, Earth stations communicate with spacecraft by transmitting and receiving radio waves in the super high frequency or extremely high frequency bands. When a ground station successfully transmits radio waves to a spacecraft, a principal telecommunications device of the ground station is the parabolic antenna. Ground stations may have either a fixed or itinerant position, article 1 § III of the ITU Radio Regulations describes various types of stationary and mobile ground stations, and their interrelationships. Specialized satellite earth stations are used to telecommunicate with satellites—chiefly communications satellites, other ground stations communicate with manned space stations or unmanned space probes. A ground station that primarily receives telemetry data, or that follows a satellite not in geostationary orbit, is called a tracking station, when a satellite is within a ground stations line of sight, the station is said to have a view of the satellite. It is possible for a satellite to communicate with more than one station at a time. A pair of stations are said to have a satellite in mutual view when the stations share simultaneous, unobstructed. Teleports may provide various broadcasting services among other functions, such as uploading computer programs or issuing commands over an uplink to a satellite. In May 1984, the Dallas/Fort Worth Teleport became the first American teleport to commence operation, the Telecommunications Industry Association also acknowledges this definition. The ITU Radiocommunication Sector, a division of the International Telecommunication Union, from 1927 to 1932, standards and regulations now governed by the ITU-R were administered by the International Consultative Committee for Radio. Eutelsat publishes similar standards and requirements, such as the Eutelsat Earth Station Standards, uplinkStation. com, a corporate directory of commercial teleports, satellite television operators, et al. World Teleport Association Accessed on 22 April 2009
6.
Very high frequency
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Very high frequency is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves from 30 MHz to 300 MHz, with corresponding wavelengths of ten to one meters. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted high frequency, and the higher frequencies are known as ultra high frequency. Air traffic control communications and air navigation systems work at distances of 100 kilometres or more to aircraft at cruising altitude, some older DVB-T receivers included channels E2 to E4 but newer ones only go down to channel E5. VHF propagation characteristics are suited for terrestrial communication, with a range generally somewhat farther than line-of-sight from the transmitter. VHF waves are restricted to the radio horizon less than 100 miles. VHF is less affected by noise and interference from electrical equipment than lower frequencies. Unlike high frequencies, the ionosphere does not usually reflect VHF waves, the distance to the radio horizon is slightly extended over the geometric line of sight to the horizon, as radio waves are weakly bent back toward the Earth by the atmosphere. These approximations are only valid for antennas at heights that are compared to the radius of the Earth. They may not necessarily be accurate in mountainous areas, since the landscape may not be transparent enough for radio waves, in engineered communications systems, more complex calculations are required to assess the probable coverage area of a proposed transmitter station. The accuracy of calculations for digital TV signals is being debated. Portable radios usually use whips or rubber ducky antennas, while base stations usually use larger fiberglass whips or collinear arrays of vertical dipoles, for directional antennas, the Yagi antenna is the most widely used as a high gain or beam antenna. For television reception, the Yagi is used, as well as the log periodic antenna due to its wider bandwidth, helical and turnstile antennas are used for satellite communication since they employ circular polarization. For even higher gain, multiple Yagis or helicals can be mounted together to make array antennas, vertical collinear arrays of dipoles can be used to make high gain omnidirectional antennas, in which more of the antennas power is radiated in horizontal directions. Television and FM broadcasting stations use arrays of specialized dipole antennas such as batwing antennas. Certain subparts of the VHF band have the same use around the world, some national uses are detailed below. 108–118 MHz, Air navigation beacons VOR and Instrument Landing System localiser, 118–137 MHz, Airband for air traffic control, AM,121.5 MHz is emergency frequency 144–146 MHz, Amateur radio. Other capital cities and regional areas used a combination of these, the initial commercial services in Hobart and Darwin were respectively allocated channels 6 and 8 rather than 7 or 9. By the early 1960s it became apparent that the 10 VHF channels were insufficient to support the growth of television services and this was rectified by the addition of three additional frequencies—channels 0, 5A and 11
7.
High frequency
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High frequency is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves between 3 and 30 MHz. It is also known as the band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten decameters. Frequencies immediately below HF are denoted medium frequency, while the band of higher frequencies is known as the very high frequency band. The HF band is a part of the shortwave band of frequencies. The band is used by shortwave broadcasting stations, aviation communication, government time stations, weather stations, amateur radio and citizens band services. By this method HF radio waves can travel beyond the horizon, around the curve of the Earth and it depends on the angle of incidence of the waves, it is lowest when the waves are directed straight upwards, and is higher with less acute angles. This means that at longer distances, where the waves graze the ionosphere at a blunt angle. The lowest usable frequency depends on the absorption in the layer of the ionosphere. This absorption is stronger at low frequencies and is stronger with increased solar activity. When all factors are at their optimum, worldwide communication is possible on HF, at many other times it is possible to make contact across and between continents or oceans. At worst, when a band is dead, no communication beyond the limited groundwave paths is possible no matter what powers, on such an open band, interference originating over a wide area affects many potential users. These issues are significant to military, safety and amateur radio users of the HF bands, other standards development such as STANAG5066 provides for error free data communications through the use of ARQ protocols. Noise, especially man-made interference from devices, tends to have a great effect on the HF bands. In recent years, concerns have risen among certain users of the HF spectrum over broadband over power lines Internet access and this is due to the frequencies on which BPL operates and the tendency for the BPL signal to leak from power lines. Some BPL providers have installed notch filters to block out certain portions of the spectrum, other electronic devices including plasma televisions can also have a detrimental effect on the HF spectrum. In aviation, HF communication systems are required for all trans-oceanic flights and these systems incorporate frequencies down to 2 MHz to include the 2182 kHz international distress and calling channel. The upper section of HF shares many characteristics with the part of VHF. The parts of this section not allocated to radio are used for local communications
8.
Radiotelephone
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A radiotelephone is a communications system for transmission of speech over radio. Radiotelephone systems are not necessarily interconnected with the land line telephone network. Radiotelephony means transmission of sound by radio, in contrast to radiotelegraphy or video transmission, the word phone has a long precedent beginning with early US wireless voice systems. The term means voice as opposed to telegraph or Morse code and this would include systems fitting into the category of two-way radio or one-way voice broadcasts such as coastal maritime weather. The term is popular in the amateur radio community and in US Federal Communications Commission regulations. A standard landline telephone allows both users to talk and listen simultaneously, effectively there are two channels between the two end-to-end users of the system. It is, however, the most comfortable method of communication for users. The most common method of working for radiotelephones is half-duplex, operation, which one person to talk. If a single channel is used, both take turns to transmit on it. An eavesdropper would hear both sides of the conversation, dual-frequency working splits the communication into two separate channels, but only one is used to transmit at a time. The end users have the experience as single frequency simplex. The user presses a switch on the transmitter when they wish to talk—this is called the press-to-talk switch or PTT. It is usually fitted on the side of the microphone or other obvious position, users may use a special code-word such as over to signal that they have finished transmitting, or it may follow from the conversation. Radiotelephones may operate at any frequency where they are licensed to do so and they may use simple modulation schemes such as AM or FM, or more complex techniques such as digital coding, spread spectrum, and so on. Licensing terms for a band will usually specify the type of modulation to be used. For example, airband radiotelephones used for air to ground communication between pilots and controllers operates in the VHF band from 118.0 to 136.975 MHz, Radiotelephone receivers are usually designed to a very high standard, and are usually of the double-conversion superhet design. Multiple channels are provided using a frequency synthesizer. Receivers usually features a squelch circuit to cut off the output from the receiver when there is no transmission to listen to
9.
Optical fiber cable
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An optical fiber cable, also known as fiber optic cable, is a cable containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically coated with plastic layers. Different types of cable are used for different applications, for long distance telecommunication. Optical fiber consists of a core and a layer, selected for total internal reflection due to the difference in the refractive index between the two. In practical fibers, the cladding is coated with a layer of acrylate polymer or polyimide. This coating protects the fiber from damage but does not contribute to its optical waveguide properties, individual coated fibers then have a tough resin buffer layer and/or core tube extruded around them to form the cable core. Several layers of protective sheathing, depending on the application, are added to form the cable, rigid fiber assemblies sometimes put light-absorbing glass between the fibers, to prevent light that leaks out of one fiber from entering another. This reduces cross-talk between the fibers, or reduces flare in fiber bundle imaging applications, for indoor applications, the jacketed fiber is generally enclosed, with a bundle of flexible fibrous polymer strength members like aramid, in a lightweight plastic cover to form a simple cable. Each end of the cable may be terminated with an optical fiber connector to allow it to be easily connected and disconnected from transmitting and receiving equipment. For use in more environments, a much more robust cable construction is required. In loose-tube construction the fiber is laid helically into semi-rigid tubes and this protects the fiber from tension during laying and due to temperature changes. Loose-tube fiber may be dry block or gel-filled, dry block offers less protection to the fibers than gel-filled, but costs considerably less. Instead of a tube, the fiber may be embedded in a heavy polymer jacket. Tight buffer cables are offered for a variety of applications, Breakout cables normally contain a ripcord, two non-conductive dielectric strengthening members, an aramid yarn, and 3 mm buffer tubing with an additional layer of Kevlar surrounding each fiber. The ripcord is a cord of strong yarn that is situated under the jacket of the cable for jacket removal. Distribution cables have an overall Kevlar wrapping, a ripcord, and these fiber units are commonly bundled with additional steel strength members, again with a helical twist to allow for stretching. A critical concern in outdoor cabling is to protect the fiber from contamination by water and this is accomplished by use of solid barriers such as copper tubes, and water-repellent jelly or water-absorbing powder surrounding the fiber. Finally, the cable may be armored to protect it from environmental hazards, in September 2012, NTT Japan demonstrated a single fiber cable that was able to transfer 1 petabit per second over a distance of 50 kilometers
10.
Intelsat
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Intelsat, S. A. is a communications satellite services provider. As of March 2017, Intelsat is to merge with Softbank backed OneWeb, the agreement is to merge in a share-for-share deal. SoftBank will buy voting and non-voting shares in the company for $1.7 billion in cash. Shares that Softbank-OneWeb will buy in the company will be bought for $5 per share. As of March 2011, Intelsat operates a fleet of 52 communications satellites and they claim to serve around 1,500 customers and employ a staff of approximately 1,100 people. The intergovernmental organization began on 20 August 1964, with 11 participating countries, on 6 April 1965, Intelsat’s first satellite, the Intelsat I, was placed in geostationary orbit above the Atlantic Ocean by a Delta D rocket. In 1973, the name was changed and there were 80 signatories, Intelsat provides service to over 600 Earth stations in more than 149 countries, territories and dependencies. By 2001, INTELSAT had over 100 members and it was also this year that INTELSAT privatized and changed its name to Intelsat. Since its inception, Intelsat has used versions of its dedicated Intelsat satellites. Intelsat completes each block of spacecraft independently, leading to a variety of contractors over the years, Intelsat’s largest spacecraft supplier is Space Systems/Loral, having built 31 spacecraft, or nearly half of the fleet. The network in its early years was not as robust as it is now. Fortunately, during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, the moon was over the Pacific Ocean, and so other antennas were used, as well as INTELSAT III, to avert the US governments interference with Intelsat, Intelsats senior management unsuccessfully considered relocating the IGO to another country. On 18 July 2001, Intelsat became a company,37 years after formation. Prior to Intelsats privatization in 2001, ownership and investment in INTELSAT was distributed among INTELSAT members according to their use of services, investment shares determined each member’s percentage of the total contribution needed to finance capital expenditures. Satellite services were available to any organization, and all paid the same rates. Today, the number of Intelsat satellites, as well as ocean-spanning fibre-optic lines, modern satellites are more robust, lasting longer with much larger capacity. Intelsat Americas-7 experienced a power failure on 29 November 2004. The satellite returned to service with reduced capacity, Intelsat was sold for U. S. $3. 1bn in January 2005 to four private equity firms, Madison Dearborn Partners, Apax Partners, Permira and Apollo Global Management
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "Cook Islands". Retrieved on 3 December 2013.
This article incorporates 
