The chairman of the mobile phone provider, Digicel, says an undersea cable from Papua New Guinea to Sydney would lead to the 'death of distance' in the Pacific.
Dennis O'Brien is calling for a public/private partnership that he says will close the digital divide that exists where Pacific nations do not have access to broadband.
He told a forum before the Apia meeting of the small island states that broadband is the umbilical cord of economic development and private companies, governments, the World Bank and other organisations need to come together to make it happen.