GOVERNMENT’s decision to allow Starlink services into Fiji has been met with praises from Fijians here and overseas.
Some took to social media to express their approval and support of this move by the Government in helping connect the unconnected, particularly those living in our maritime and rural areas.
One such individual is Sole Fintech founder Semi Tukana whose business owned two of these Starlink kits.
“I’m just so happy and delighted with the news today (Wednesday) that’s coming from Parliament, from DPM (deputy Prime Minister) Manoa Kamikamica. I’m just so happy because I’ve seen firsthand the struggles, in terms of connectivity, that our people in the islands are facing,” Mr Tukana told The Fiji Times.
“On the islands, you will see bad connectivity and that’s what gave rise to a couple of posts that I made about Starlink.”
Mr Tukana and a team from Sole Fintech was part of Attorney-General (A-G) Siromi Turaga’s entourage on his Gau and Nairai islands official tour early this month.
Mr Tukana took both his Starlink kits on this trip for two reasons.
“I took it to Gau for two reasons: we want to be connected and secondly to show them first-hand. They’ve heard about Starlink but haven’t seen how it work.
“No technicians went with us to set it up. We took two kits with us, and we shared it.
“One of the kits was for A-G and entourage, including us from Sole, and the other one, we gave it to the villagers.
“They were so happy. That is in Nacavanadi Village. It’s a big village and there were about 1000 people in that village on that day.”
While on the islands, the team got to see first-hand the struggle those in the maritime islands were facing when it came to network connectivity.
“They were having their Methodist Church annual divisional meeting and a lady from the Methodist Church in Fiji had gone to record videos of the meeting.
“Before we arrived, she recorded the videos and then at night, they’d take her out to the sea where she could upload the videos. This was going on until we came in, installed (Starlink kit), and we gave her access.
“Then they told us the story about the teachers on the island. Every Friday they had to go to update the FEMIS (Fiji Education Management Information System) records. They would catch a boat, which they paid for it, to get connectivity and upload their FEMIS updated records.
“Those are the difficulties that our people are facing out there.
“So, it’s so good that Government is allowing Starlink in. I’m just so happy. We take it (connectivity) for granted here in the city. We really take it for granted. Now we have 5G, but there’s 0G over there.
“We are going into 5G and there’s 0G there and these are mainly Fijians residing in the villages, in remote areas. So, getting this opened up is going to open up new opportunities.”
But how can someone here in Fiji acquire these kits?
For Mr Tukana and Sole Fintech, they bought their kits directly from Australia and brought it to Fiji way before the Telecommunication Authority of Fiji (TAF) placed a ban on the importation of Starlink kits in March this year.
Now that Government has given the greenlight for Fijians to use Starlink kits for better connectivity, the only update left is from TAF on the protocols and requirements one needed to meet in order to import their kits.
“It will not cost any money to government because the people in the villages have money, and they can buy their own satellite kits, and all we are asking for, is for government to open the door so that they can also connect with their loved ones.
“Just imagine that in a village — having that kind of access.
“Standard kits can get you 240 megabits per second. It can even go up to 300 megabits per second. Or it can even go down to 150 megabits per second but still enough. With the standard kit, from the spec that we got, well it can go up to 150 devices connected at once.
“They (Government and Starlink) just need to work on the reseller’s agreements and all that.
“I believe if we want to bring Starlink kits with us through the airport, we need to have a special permit from TAF.”
Mr Tukana said if Government could assist in providing subsidy for the kits to those in the maritime islands and rural areas that would be great.
“But if not, then it doesn’t matter. The people can pay for their own Starlink kits because it’s not $100,000, it’s not even $20,000. It’s just $800 and they don’t need an engineer or technician to set it up.
“However, my concern is that if it is not controlled properly, we could find some negative impacts on children, young people, and even older people.
“We need to block unwanted sites and that’s the reason why we would like them to come through our network, with a partnership with Rogo Net. If people come through us, hopefully Rogo Net will get a resellers licence as well. If they do, then we’ll be able to control, we will be able to block unwanted sites. That’s the only concern I have.”
While delivering his ministerial statement in Parliament, Mr Kamikamica said Starlink was currently working with TAF to ensure that all Starlink devices and services operating in Fiji are compliant with proper regulations.
