Gilbert and Ellice Islands French captain Louis Duperrey was the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago. He commanded "La Coquille" on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825). Funafuti atoll was named Ellice's Island after Edward Ellice, a British politician and merchant, by Captain Arent de Peyster, who sighted the islands in 1819 sailing on the ship "Rebecca". Ellice owned the cargo of the ship. The name Ellice was applied to all nine islands, of what is now Tuvalu, after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were formerly designated an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "GE"
Telecommunications in the United States Virgin Islands treated as domestic, while multimedia messages (MMS) are unavailable for Verizon customers. Telephone system: Country code / area code +1-340 Radio broadcast stations: 24 radio stations broadcasting (2009) Radios: 107,000 (2003) Television broadcast stations: about a dozen television broadcast stations including 1 public TV station; multi-channel cable and satellite TV services are available (2009) Televisions: 68,000 (1997) The U.S. Virgin Islands' country code top-level domain is .vi. Internet hosts: 8,933 (2010) Internet users: 30,000 (2008) Locally owned and operated Internet Service Provider: SM@RTNET www.smartnet.vi Providing Internet service via fixed wireless and Fiber Optics. Telecommunications in the United States Virgin Islands