FIJI’S international telecommunications gateway at Vatuwaqa is running out of space to accommodate growing interest from international cable and satellite companies to build their broadband networks across the Pacific, where Fiji is used as their hub in the region.
In the last four years, a rush by international telecom conglomerates into the Pacific, driven mainly by geopolitics, has seen big names like Starlink, Google and OneWeb roll out a constellation of multimillion dollar investments in cable and satellite infrastructures in the region, with most going through the Fiji International Telecommunication Ltd (FINTEL) gateway in Vatuwaqa.
But this, according to FINTEL chief executive officer George Samisoni, is putting pressure on available real estate at the site, with the company already in a partnership with OneWeb and currently in talks with Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband provider Amazon and Facebook parent Meta to host their hub services in Vatuwaqa, which would mean having to look for space to put earth stations and expand landing facilities.
“OneWeb is already operating here now for the last two years, Starlink is now into its fourth year, Amazon is bringing Kuiper and Meta, with its big ‘W’-shaped cable covering the whole world, is also coming. So there’s a lot of interest coming in and the only problem we have is there’s no real estate in Vatuwaqa. It’s getting crowded,” Mr Samisoni told this newspaper at yesterday’s annual general meeting of its parent company Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH).
OneWeb, which offers a similar satellite broadband service as Starlink, partnered with FINTEL in providing its services to enterprise customers such as ships and aeroplanes.
And as recently as October 17, the 100 per cent grant-funded Vaka Cable came online through FINTEL’s Vatuwaqa gateway, connecting Tuvalu’s capital Funafuti to Google’s Bulikula Cable System, establishing Tuvalu’s first ever direct broadband cable access to the world.
Mr Samisoni said so far, FINTEL now has 16 earth stations in Vatuwaqa and is in talks with the Fiji National Provident Fund, the Fiji Golf Club and the Government for available land.
