Remote businesses can now benefit from affordable access to internet, delivered via satellite from Vodafone Fiji.
According to Vodafone these remote and rural communities which were typically beyond the reach of traditional network coverage benefit from this.
The solution was state to offer a simple and convenient way to connect remote areas and offices to the internet.
Vodafone would add value by bundling phone system with this solution, so businesses, government offices, schools and health centres in these remote areas could connect and communicate.
Vodafone’s chief commercial officer Ronald Prasad said in today’s digital age, it was important that every individual had access to internet.
“As an essential services provider, Vodafone continuously strives to bring innovative and cost-effective solutions to connect people, businesses, and communities, even in the hard-to-reach remote locations,” he said.
“We continue to invest in solutions, so all Fijians can benefit, take advantage of innovation in digital technology and improve their lives.
“The solution is scalable and can be tailored to suit household use, community use and generate business.”
Vodafone had deployed this solution in the highlands of Namosi to connect remote communities and based on the success, this model was now being replicated across other communities.
Fiji Pine Group of Companies also implemented this as they had struggled with communicating with four of their forest stations in Bua, Ra, Nabou and Uto in the interior of Nadi.
According to Vodafone employees would travel a few kilometres from the stations daily to reach coverage areas to communicate and send reports to the head office in Drasa, Lautoka.
Osea Daveta, IT manager at Fiji Pine Group of Companies said they faced a lot of difficulties in communicating with their teams at forest stations.
“Our management did not have proper visibility of the operations,” he said.
“We explored solutions from multiple vendors, however, the huge upfront cost associated with satellite solutions and high ongoing costs were prohibitive.
“Vodafone’s cost-effective Satellite Internet solution has broken this barrier and best of all it uses a small form factor to deliver effective and reliable internet connectivity.
“This enabled our staff onsite to send daily reports on operations of nursery, logging, harvesting, slashing, inventory, restocking, etc from the comfort of their office; no longer having to travel away from the station office.
“This greatly assisted in timely decisions and productivity. Vodafone’s bundled Cloud Telephony provided enterprise grade communication solution and features.
“We are delighted with Vodafone’s services, level of support and out of the box thinking to get us connected.”
