Postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu Postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls. Its population of 10,472 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world. In terms of physical land size, at just Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world. Tuvalu was formerly the Ellice Islands, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands which split into Kiribati and Tuvalu upon gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1978
Internet in Australia to the greater Internet, there existed an IP-based network, linking academic institutions within Australia, known as ACSNet, using the .oz domain and connected to international networks using other technologies. When Australia was fully integrated into the Internet, this domain was moved under .au to become .oz.au and still exists today. The first permanent circuit connecting AARNet to ARPANet using TCP/IP over X.25 was established in May 1989. It linked the University of Melbourne with the University of Hawaii via a 2400-bit/s (bits per second) satellite connection. It was later upgraded to 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second), and then 256 kbit/s,