American broadband satellite service provider Starlink has still not launched its services in Fiji, five months after it has been issued with a business license to operate here.
And the word from the telecom regulator is that as long as the company has not officially launched its services locally as required under its license, its usage here will be restricted.
“Prior to the license being issued, we already knew of activities in the country where people were bringing in kits. Strictly speaking, those were illegal because they were not licensed to operate here,” Telecom Authority of Fiji (TAF) chairman David Eyre said in an interview with this newspaper.
“That said, when you issue a license, you assume that within a certain time period, they will launch their service. We had given that license on November 14 last year – 2023.
“Four months on, we are still doing this process, set up as well. We are pushing them to launch quickly because of the fact that there’s high interest (in their service) and especially in this rural and remote areas (connectivity), which was one of the primary reasons why we licensed them. So that’s the scenario on the ground at the moment with Starlink,” Mr Eyre said.
Last month, TAF issued a public statement stating that Starlink’s services “have not been activated in Fiji at this time” and that it will “notify the public once service activation and launch schedules are
provided by Starlink”.
TAF’s position on the importation of Starlink kits directly from Starlink, however, was not clear.
While it stated in the same public notice that “importation of Starlink kits into Fiji will be assumed to be in anticipation of the forthcoming availability of services via Starlink (Fiji) Pte Ltd”, it was reportedly holding back on issuing import permits for the kits, only allowing the importation of kits for maritime use.
Mr Eyre said the notice was specifically meant for third party resellers of Starlink services.
“Essentially for us, we are looking at the guys who are reselling that service.
“If they take revenue off Starlink and resell it. So that’s what that statement means. There are no licensed resellers here in Fiji. Starlink has not authorised an entity to resell their service.”
