Telecom Fiji is known by many Pacific Island corporations and governments as the premier Information and Communications Technology (ICT) service provider in our region of the world.

Due to an extensive footprint, excellent track record and fiercely proud of the fact that they are Fijian-owned, the telecommunications industry has grown from strength to strength for over 100 years.

Closer to home, the Telecom brand is synonymous with ICT services in Fiji. The organisation, which pioneered voice communications in Fiji, is now one of the largest facilities-based providers of high-level ICT services in Fiji.

Telecom offers a wide variety of products and services over their networks (which they are proud to let us know is highly scalable, secure and super fast).

Telecom’s fibre network

In fact, Telecom’s fibre network plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the nation’s business continues to run smoothly and that thousands of Fijians are not left in the lurch. Essential services like the provision of clean drinking water and reliable electricity depend on Telecom’s network for monitoring, connectivity and smart reporting.

Any aircraft entering Fijian airspace uses Telecom’s high capacity, high-speed network to signal its position in intervals of milliseconds.

Internationally acclaimed five-star and six-star resorts, such as the Marriot in Momi, rely on Telecom’s network to provide reliable high-speed connectivity for their operations.

Telecom’s climate-controlled server environments store millions of gigabytes of data, including local storage of the entire Netflix collection.

Backhaul services

In addition, Telecom provides backhaul services for the national e-ticketing service that the public utilises for Fiji’s bus system.

Telecom also provides data networking solutions, managed services, and cloud services.

These services provide Fijian residents and businesses with networking, communications and technology solutions suitable for their daily needs.

Telecom’s ability to deliver service on a consistent basis is due to robust network and hardware.

This is thanks to a combination of local expertise and strategic partnerships with a number of internationally renowned ICT providers like global giants Cisco and Oracle.

The man at the helm of Telecom, chief executive officer Charles Goundar, attributes this success to the Telecom team.

“My staff are the reason that Telecom is able to provide high-level technology services to our fellow Fijians. We have developed solutions to address the broader needs of the marketplace, including home connectivity, business continuity, collaboration, communications, connectivity and security,” Mr Goundar said.

ICT services

Telecom also supports our Government through ICT services to key Government ministries like education and health, as well as providing the infrastructure for the Government’s current digitisation plans that seek to update Government services and databases to be faster and more accessible to those who need them.

The digitalFiji programme already has a number of services available.

They are the Government directory (an online and dynamically updated directory of ministers, permanent secretaries and key officials of the Fijian Government) and myFeedback (an application that acts as a single gateway to communicate, provide feedback and even raise issues with the aim to improve Government services).

Financial institutions also depend heavily on Telecom. They recently worked with BSP Bank in providing connectivity to their EFTPOS machines so that people living in the islands are able to use them to do banking transactions.

Similar to the remote banking transaction services, Telecom provides satellite services to the very remote islands of Fiji where no terrestrial connectivity is available.

This platform allows communities in such places to call anywhere around the globe and access the internet so they can engage in distance learning online, go on social media and take advantage of apps.

This also enables remote schools and health centres to stay connected; to report daily to their respective central office on their activity and issues and to be up to date with the latest information.

Telecom also considers itself a member of the essential services in Fiji and in collaboration with the Fiji National Disaster Management Office, is working on providing an emergency disaster-related communication solution.

While some ventures may not be profitable, Telecom maintains its commitment to providing great communication services to each and every Fijian.

This commitment is why Telecom works at bridging the digital divide that plagues most nations.

As rural areas get more and more estranged from urban areas that receive the necessary incremental upgrades to keep pace with changes in technology, the resulting digital divide can lead to a lack of educational or employment opportunities which often leads to the mass urban migration of young people.

All of this barely scratches the surface of how big a role Telecom plays in the daily lives of Fijians. With Telecom, the focus is always on future innovations.

With more than a century of experience and success under their belt, they are now looking to the future with gusto.

Smart technology

Smart technology will lay the foundation for future Fijians to be even more connected and will take Telecom and Fiji forward into the next 100 years.

With such prowess, it should come as no surprise that Telecom is, essentially, the service provider to essential service providers.

Edited by Percy Kean

Feedback: selita.bolanavanua@fijisun.com.fj