CW featured in July Islands Business

Thanks to the hard work of Dionisia Tabureguci, the Coconut Wireless has been featured in July’s edition of Pacific Islands Business Magazine. It is a matter of great pride for me to have to this site referred to in a publication like Islands Business. It’s all part of an effort to give the public a better understanding of how telecommunications affects the future of our islands.

Recently, I came across this article via the Radio New Zealand website, that included the following:

Connect and KIDANET involved in email quarrel

More dissension in the ATH family. Several tipsters forwarded me an email that has recently been circulated by KIDANET support. It appears that Connect is blocking email messages originating from KIDANET users. This is an unfortunate development and one we hope is resolved quickly. The era of liberalisation should be marked by fair competition, not petty displays such as this.

Regulatory authorities must be vigilant against this type of behavior and should have the ability to slap fines and other sanctions in a timely manner. 

Here is the email:

Digicel awarded license for entry into Nauru

The people of Nauru stand to benefit tremendously  from the announcement of Digicel, the fastest growing telecommunications operator in the Pacific, confirming it has been awarded a GSM licence in the Republic of Nauru. Starting in August, Digicel will launch operations in its 32nd market worldwide. You can read the full announcement here. With a a presennce in Nauru,  Digicel looks to further its commitment  to the development of a true Pan-Pacific network.

Nauru is the 6th Pacific Island nation that Digicel has entered. The others are: Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.

Some comments from Digicel Pacific CEO, Vanessa Slowey:

Ms. Slowey praised the Government of Nauru’s determination in bringing world-class mobile telecommunications to the people of Nauru and added that, “We have been working alongside the Government of Nauru for the last six months in ensuring that this investment will transform the lives of all Nauruans and we have been enormously encouraged by the sheer drive and enthusiasm of the entire team from Nauru who have worked tirelessly and diligently on this project. Digicel is totally committed to building a hugely successful business with the Government of Nauru and ensuring that everybody in Nauru has access to the service”. 

You can download the full news release from Digicel, here.

Glimpses of July 17th Announcement

Two more months and then we'll know what the beast looks like

Until the announcement on July 17th of the 2nd round of telecom sector liberalisation, we are like the people in this picture, only able to  guess at the parts of the elephant. We have already seen what competition in mobile means, and on that day, we will be given the road map for how Internet will advance in Fiji.

So, as we attempt to piece together what the elephant looks like, let’s take a look at what Dionisia has for us over at FijiLive:

The deregulation of international access, scheduled for July 17 this year, is phase two of the process. It will mean that any domestic reseller of telecommunication services may directly source its international bandwidth needs without going through FINTEL, as was previously the case.

Her article was very informative and helps us get a better understanding of how FINTEL is positioning itself with regard to future competition and government regulation.  By getting out ahead of government calls for liberalisation of the international gateway they hope to avoid more serious measures that government might push.