Addressing the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) Policy and Regulatory forum on its second day in Nadi yesterday, FINTEL Chief Executive, Mr Ioane Koroivuki explained FINTEL’s Pacific Plan which included using Fiji as a hub of communications and connectivity in the Pacific.
The Pacific Plan was an idea birthed way back in 2001 by FINTEL to address the issues of connectivity in the region. This was just after the launch of the Southern Cross Optic Fibre Cable Network which linked Fiji with Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and US mainland.
“Unfortunately the Pacific region really did not take up the proposal mainly because of the costs related to the concept which would have been in excess of 400 million in US dollars at that time and that’s a lot of dollars if you talk about that in the pacific”, said Mr Koroivuki while speaking to Fiji TV.
Mr Koroivuki said that while the pacific faced challenges in trying to measure up with how the world has progressed in the area of ICT, he’s adamant that in the coming years the region will be on par with the rest of the world.
“This has now fallen into the hands of the World Bank, especially with the funding and the Pacific islands are being encouraged to start developing their own cable systems and this is the reason why Tonga Cable is now working with FINTEL to have connectivity”, said Mr Koroivuki.
He says with the assistance of the World Bank Tonga has come on board and works are also on the pipeline to link Vanuatu to get its connectivity source through Fiji and hopefully this will increase.
“This project is going ahead and Tonga should be online by the middle of next year. Vanuatu is the same case and we’ve signed an LPA (Landing Party Agreement) with them as well and Vanuatu is trying to finalise their investor issues”, said Mr Koroivuki.
“Fiji is leading in the developments of communications within the Pacific and for international connectivity Southern Cross has been very strong especially with our relationship with them and in our ability to deliver a broadband based society”, Mr Koroivuki added.
The APT is organizing the 5th Policy and Regulation Forum for Pacific from 23 to 25 July 2012 in Nadi and hosted by the Ministry of Public Enterprises, Communications, Civil Aviation & Tourism and supported by Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA).
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