|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Telecom: SAMOATEL TO LAUNCH NEW GSM MOBILE SERVICE SHORTLY |
The company paid a dividend of T$2 million to the government last year.
Dev Nadkarni
Samoa’s government-owned fixed line telecommunications services provider, SamoaTel, is set to launch its own cellular phone services, also with a new GSM network that will have 24 cell sites.
While SamoaTel said it was not in a position to reveal exactly when it would roll out the service, industry circles surmise it might do so some time early next year.
 |
Michael Johnstone... SamoaTel performing impressively.
|
SamoaTel has performed impressively by increasing teledensity in the country. This has been helped by the proliferation of its fixed cell Wireless Local Loop (WLL) network, especially on the island of Savai’i.
WLL has added nearly 4000 new customers to SamoaTel, chief executive officer Michael Johnstone told ISLANDS BUSINESS.
The company is upgrading its microwave links. Nearly 85 percent of its network on Upolu and 25 percent on Savai’i is now fibre optic.
The company paid a dividend of T$2 million to the government last year and launched aggressive marketing campaigns to promote its weekend call plans and the “Call Samoa Card” which has been a runaway success in New Zealand.
“Usage has gone up from 10,000 minutes a month to over 100,000 minutes a month,” says Johnstone. SamoaTel plans to launch the cards in Australia and the United States soon.
Referring to the islands telcos’ plans to build redundancy in their international connectivity, Johnstone said Samoa was relatively better placed having voice and data connectivity channelled through different satellites “that can be swapped in the event of an outage.”
It also has a mutual arrangement with neighbouring American Samoa for international connectivity in the event of any technical glitches involving its satellites.
|
|
|
Other Stories
|
|
|
|
|
