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Home / Business Customers / VTSAT Services to Remote Islands
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| VTSAT Services to Remote Islands |
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| Telecom Fiji upgrades VTSAT services to remote islands Telecom Fiji Limited introduced Satellite VSAT technology, locally known as VTSat, in 2004 to service a number of outlying islands, resorts and remote rural villages that are otherwise impossible to serve. The cost of rolling out and maintaining such a network is substantial compared to the wireline or wireless local loop technology commonly used in urban centres. Telecom Fiji has recently upgraded the system to improve reliability at an affordable cost for customer terminal. In islands addition to this, major reductions were made to VTSat data and call charges illustrated in the table below. The new VTSat services are equipped to provide 4 basic standard telephones which can expand to 12 lines by the addition of line modules. Any of these 4 standard telephones can also support facsimile in either a dedicated or fax/phone mode. Customers who wish to connect to Broadband internet can be offered basic download rates of 128kpbs and 256 kbps. The VTSat has an uplink speed of 64kbps where the service and support are provided by Connect. TFL continues to strive to reduce the cost of delivery to our remote customers which is reflected in the 60% reduction in the terminal cost. | Before | Current | Percentage Drop % | Prepaid | $0.80/min vip | $0.49/min vip | 46% | Post-paid | $0.49/min vip | $0.23/min vip | 53% | Internet Services [64kbps] | $0.49/min vip | $478.13/mth vip | 79% | Internet Services [128kbps] | $2,576.25/mth vip | $495.00/mth vip | 81% |
TFL, in its continuing effort to provide the best VSAT solution for our islands, has installed 125 sites and is looking to install an additional 80 sites in Fiji and Rotuma.
What the future holds TFL’s move to the new system will explore future network options for e-commerce, distance learning, community health care and corporate networking applications throughout Fiji. TFL is also exploring wireless local loop via satellite. It has a vehicle mounted self pointing antenna and VSAT terminal also installed for demonstration purposes and emergency support."We believe the migration to the new solution is an ideal platform on which to provide efficient, reliable communications services to many of our more than 300 islands," said TFL Group Managing Director Joe Mar. "We have completed our initial deployment and are expanding the network so that more of our citizens can begin reaping the benefits of voice and other broadband IP applications." Customers have their say Turaga ni Koro Rokovuaka, using the VTSat telephone to communicate with the rest of the world. "Before we needto have at least $6.00 in our pocket before we can go to Rakiraki town and Nayavu to make a phone call."
Seru of Rokovuaka Village using the VTSat services.Iowani Lagilevu wrote; "Thank youvery much for the assístance and service. The people of Togo village are extremely happy with the provision of telephone services in the village that has allowed us to communicate with the rest of the world. Thank you very much for the services and to TFL" |
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