Internet usage in NMI growing slowly

Since its birth in the late 1970s, outgrowing what was then called the ARPANET, the Internet has drawn millions of users throughout the world but browsers from the Northern Marianas are increasing rather slowly.

Kerry Deets, GTE Pacifica staff administrator for marketing and communications, said Internet usage throughout the Northern Marianas is still low compared with other countries but added that the CNMI is trying to catch up to the technology.

Published surveys on Internet usage disclosed there are over 377 million people all over the world logging on to the Internet each day as of September 2000 and technology experts predict the number to grow leaps before the end of the year.

In the Asia-Pacific Region, there are at least 89.68 million people who connect to the Net through their modems, while there are more than 161 million browsers throughout the United States and Canada.

According to Ms. Deets, GTE Pacifica is laying the groundwork to keep the Northern Marianas at pace with the newest trends in Information Technology by making the service accessible to CNMI residents.

“Internet use in the CNMI is slowly increasing. What we would like to do is make the services readily available to the customers and educate them on how to navigate the web and how to establish email address,” she told an interview.

She pointed out that the telecommunications company is seriously looking at opening up an IT training facility to make CNMI residents aware of the Internet’s benefits and infinite possibilities, as part of GTE Pacifica’s community outreach program.

“Among the things that we are looking at is making the service available to the public at no charge. We are still developing the program, the plan is not yet solidified but it is something that is definitely a priority,” Ms. Deets said.

She explained that there is a need to establish a backbone of experts who will handle the program, adding that GTE Pacifica is hoping to offer the Internet awareness and education program by December or during the first part of next year.

“With that kind of education and awareness, it will start to make people aware of what the possibilities are with the Internet,” she pointed out.

There is an inevitable need to intensify the promotion of Internet on the islands to make the CNMI at pace with neighboring countries, considering the fact that the information highway is growing fast and more people are hooking up each day.

In fact, the number of hosts on the Internet has roughly tripled in the time from January 1994 to January 1996, from 2.2 million to 9.5 million. There were about 4.9 million hosts on the Internet in 1995 and 1.3 million in 1993.