Having traveled to all of the countries in Oceania, one of the main things people ask is how the internet connectivity worked. This could be because they’re planning to travel there and work remotely, or because they’re worried about trying to navigate a super remote place with no access to the internet.
Fear not! I have put together all of the info I learned about data connectivity while visiting each of the pacific islands, so that you can best prepare! If you’re worried that some of them will be data dead zones, you have every right to be concerned because some of them absolutely are. But you can prepare in advance, and there are others where I honestly had better connectivity than in the UK…
Also side note before I begin – avoid regional ‘Oceania’ e-sims. The connection in most countries (other than Australia and New Zealand) was garbage and in some countries just completely didn’t work.
Anyway! Below the definitive ranking of best to worst internet connectivity across the pacific!
1 & 2 – Australia and New Zealand
Honestly these two need no introduction. E-sims work great, you can buy unlimited data sims there for a really low price, connectivity is excellent, etc. In more rural areas though honestly it can be a bit patchy, but that’s just like literally anywhere else in the world. Wifi is obviously also abundantly available and very fast. Working from here would be no issue at all as long as you weren’t somewhere super rural.
3 – Fiji
Another great location for strong internet connectivity. There are Fiji e-sims but give them a miss and grab one in the airport, they’re super cheap for a huge amount of data, and connection is generally much faster. There was decent wifi in most hotels and restaurants. Another location you could easily work from.
4 – Samoa
For some reason I had low expectations for Samoa connectivity but I was pleasantly surprised. The airport has a couple of SIM card stores, and they’re open whenever a flight lands, which meant I could get one when I arrived at 2am. It wasn’t too pricey and there was a large data allowance. Connection was decent all over the island too. Wifi was fairly good in hotels, not that common in restaurants/cafes. Good place to work from.
5 – Papua New Guinea
I paid through the nose for a 1GB e-sim before I landed in PNG, expecting it to be hard to get a sim. I was so wrong. There were two stores in the airport offering sims with strong connection even in remote areas, and for reasonable prices. They worked up in Mt Hagen and in rural mountain areas too, though could get a bit patchy sometimes. The e-sim was also decent though not as strong of a connection. Wifi wasn’t hugely available, though you could get it in a couple of better hotels in Port Moresby. Could’ve worked from main cities here though not rurally.
6 – Vanuatu
Another place I got an e-sim thinking there might be issues with getting a physical one (I was landing at a weekend and you never know with these islands whether things will be closed…). I needn’t have worried though, a store in the airport sorted me out with 5GBs for around $5. I will say though that outside of the Port Vila, connection was rubbish. I struggled to get any connectivity the whole time I was driving around the island. Wifi in hotels was ok. Not super common in restaurants. Working from here would be ok-ish if you stayed in the city.
7 – Tonga
I took an e-sim here and it wasn’t very good. No connection outside of Tongatapu, and slow connection within the city itself. There were a couple of stores with physical sims at the airport, and connection on those seemed to be better judging by reviews locals gave me. Wifi was average in hotels, though sometimes a bit slow. It was not really available in restaurants/cafes. Workable for working but you have to try harder for decent connection than those above.
8 – Palau
This would’ve been much lower in the list if not for the strong presence of wifi in hotels and restaurants. Generally this worked ok but would sometimes slow down when lots of people were using it. There wasn’t an e-sim available for Palau (at least not in mid 2024) and the SIM card store at the airport had nobody working there. Didn’t see anywhere you could easily get a sim in town either. Working from here would’ve been a bit of a struggle.
9 – Micronesia
I only stopped in Chuck, where you couldn’t get sims in the airport. It could be different in Pohnpei. There was no e-sim here, and no areas that looked like they had cafes/restaurants with wifi. Wifi in higher end hotels was ok, though not very fast, and often only worked in the lobby/restaurant, not in the rooms. Wouldn’t risk trying to work from here.
10 – Marshal Islands
There’s nowhere to get a sim in the airport in Majuro (there is basically nothing in the airport except a dive bar and a diner…), no e-sims, and wifi wasn’t super abundant, though you could get it in some restaurants. If you’re staying on a private atoll, forget about internet connectivity because you’re not likely to get any. Don’t try to work from here, just enjoy the beach.
11 – Tuvalu
Another no e-sim country. There was a SIM card store next to the airport but it wasn’t open when I landed on a Saturday (and nothing is open on Sundays…). Might be different during the week but don’t count on it. There is Starlink here though, I stayed in an airbnb that had internet connectivity with Starlink though I had to pay the host an extra fee of around $30 USD to use it. It worked really well though, with a strong connection. A couple of the hotels also had wifi, but not all of them. Take your chances if you have work to do here…
12 – Nauru
I got an e-sim here that just completely didn’t work (I was then locked in a battle for days with the provider trying to prove it hadn’t worked so I could get a refund…). There was nowhere to get sims in the airport, and wifi in the hotel was hit and miss. It only worked in the lobby. We were in a ‘high end’ hotel – cheaper/more rural hotels likely won’t have wifi. Another ‘don’t try and work from here’ type country. Tbh you don’t need to spend longer than a day here, so use that day to walk around the island instead…
13 – Solomon Islands
This one was honestly the biggest surprise. Solomon gets quite a few tourists from Australia, so I kind of expected it to be a similar situation to Vanuatu. I was very wrong. I could only find one e-sim that cost $50 USD for 1GB – I very obviously did not buy this. There was no SIM card store in the airport, and the main telecom store was closed on Sundays when I landed. I tried to visit it on the Monday to get one and there was a line of 30 people waiting to get help, so I gave up. Hotels only offered wifi if you paid for it, and you could get a 1/3/5 day pass. The wifi wasn’t super reliable though. I stayed in one of the better hotels and it didn’t work in the lobby, and only worked half the time in the room. Don’t try and work from here.
14 – Kiribati
There were loads of Vodafone signs all over Kiribati but it was impossible to find a SIM card. There is no store inside the airport, I couldn’t see a store anywhere in town, and none of the convenience stores sold SIMs. Hotels and cafes offered wifi but you had to pay for it and could only buy vouchers to last you around 200MBs – it would then run out and you’d have to buy more. Many places often only had a limited number of vouchers for the day and once they ran out you couldn’t get one to connect. Also sometimes they sold you vouchers that didn’t actually work. Forget about trying to do calls from here, or even refreshing your inbox…
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