Walesi Fiji was operating illegally, Minister for Communication Manoa Kamikamica told Parliament while presenting the result of the Technical Assessment of Fiji’s Digital Television Transmission Setup yesterday, raised the fact Walesi Fiji was operating without a licence.
“Walesi failed to obtain necessary operating and spectrum licenses for its operations,” he said.
“This not only exposed our nation to risks of interference with critical services like civil aviation, but this failure reflects poor oversight and negligence in complying with basic international telecommunication obligations.”
He said the company’s policy on free to air content, suboptimal network design and poor technology choices was the result of bad planning ultimately affecting Fijian households.
“Despite global standards in 2016 pointing to the transition to the H.265/HEVC codec, the network instead utilised the H.264 codec.
“This decision meant that over 200,000 set-top boxes distributed at significant public cost were outdated from the beginning as the question was never ‘if’ but ‘when’ these would need to be replaced, making this a clear waste of public funds.”
He added the review highlighted the absence of a sustainable framework for Walesi’s operations.
“There was no structured revenue model, no strategic pricing for broadcasters utilising the network, and no long-term plan for infrastructure maintenance. This was a fundamental failure to think beyond the immediate.”
