|
|
Fiji Opens VoIP
2007-07-03
In its telling policy paper, a copy of which was obtained by ISLANDS BUSINESS, on the reasons why regulatory shackles must come off this previously domestically-banned mode of communication, the department which now comes under the trade ministry, said the recent introduction of high speed and broadband Internet “has given rise to the increasing VoIP traffic from Fiji”.
“It is very apparent that this trend is tending towards a situation where VoIP practically captures most, if not all, of the telephony traffic.”
Apparently taking this as a cue that there was a need to safeguard public VoIP users, the Fiji’s department of communication stated it was in the interest of the consumers and VoIP providers that there was a stated policy direction by Government.
“VoIP is a new form of service that is becoming popular because it offers cheaper telephone calls,” director of communications, Josua Turaganivalu told ISLANDS BUSINESS.
“Some ISPs had expressed interest in providing VoIP service to their customers, so in order to better understand this market, we went on to look at the American market where the takeup of VoIP has become very popular.
“We found that the American market had to deal with some issues of public interest when it came to the provision of VoIP for public consumption.
“The most important one was the inability of VoIP to maintain an emergency number. Where in the old PSTN (Public Standard Telephone Network) operators can maintain a dedicated line for emergency numbers, for example 911, it was found that in VoIP, it was not recognisable.
Issue of concern
“So we thought this was an issue of concern to the public which government should be seen to have an interest in. Another issue that we had to consider was national security.
“The government should, for security reasons, be able to intercept and trace calls made on VoIP and this will also be another requirement that those who want to provide VoIP in the Fiji market should satisfy before they are given a licence,” Turaganivalu said.
Whether or not this decision has gone down well with incumbent monopoly carriers could not be determined as no one was ready to make a formal announcement.
ISLANDS BUSINESS received no response from the Fiji International Telecommunications Limited (FINTEL) on requests for an interview sent to it.
FINTEL is the sole provider of international telecommunication services to and from Fiji and maintains a direct link with the Southern Cross Cable Network, an optic fibre network owned by a consortium of companies and which runs two sets of links—one from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Hawaii—linking up with another link that connects Hawaii, San Francisco and Los Angeles together.
FINTEL has only recently entered the Internet service market with its ISP Kidanet, which currently has network coverage in the capital city and surrounding urban areas. It has continuously lost international voice revenue over the years to callback services, a situation worsened by the increase of VoIP usage from Fiji.
The company’s turnover had been facing a declining trend from F million in 2000 to F.1 in 2004, according to its annual reports.
Drop in profits This drop of an average F.5 million a year has largely been the result of a declining trend in international voice tariff revenue for FINTEL, a revenue the company would have earned off the back of telephone calls originating from Fiji.
With callback and now VoIP, international telephone calls made from Fiji are carried out as data on what has now become IP-based networks, meaning that FINTEL cannot capture these calls as actual voice traffic, hence the decline in FINTEL’s revenue, as international voice earning is the company’s core business.
Its domestic equivalent Telecom Fiji Ltd (TFL) also decided to keep reactions on a low, only saying it will “await a copy of the policy and take it from there.”
TFL’s ISP business is being offered under its sister company called Connect Internet Services.
Despite their commercial independence, TFL and FINTEL are ultimately linked to Amalgamated Telecom Holdings, the country’s only telecommunications conglomerate which has 100 percent shareholding in TFL, which in 1998 was given the right to manage the Fiji Government’s 51 percent shareholding in FINTEL for a period of 20 years, with the option to renew for an additional 10 years.
The only other major ISP is Unwired Fiji, an independent outfit backed by a group of local and overseas investors and which opened shop here in 2005. Its CEO John Pollock told ISLANDS BUSINESS the company endorsed the opening up of VoIP by government, as this would enable it to offer the VoIP product it had been trailing over the past months.
“We are very happy with this decision as it has been something we have been asking government over the last 12 months. VoIP is a natural element of services deliverable by ISPs and we’ve always maintained that anything deliverable by ISPs should be allowed. It’s no use having an IP based network when you can’t use it to its full potential,” said Pollock.
With its offering of wireless high speed and broadband Internet service on an IP-based network that claims to be fully WiMAX compliant and which would easily migrate to the mobile wireless broadband standard due for release next year, Unwired Fiji announced only last month that it was expanding its network coverage to Nausori, a growing township a few miles out of capital Suva and host to Fiji’s second international airport.
“We already have a VoIP product on trial. it won’t be skype but another well-known product that is very popular in the United States,” said Pollock. He raised concern at the unlevel playing field with the participation now of FINTEL in the ISP market and the fact that it still holds exclusivity on international telecommunication.
Pollock said the host of technical problems that Unwired Fiji has been experiencing because it has had to go through a middleman, could all be solved if it had its network directly connected to the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN).
“We have been given the permission to go straight to the SCCN and by the end of July, we will bypass FINTEL.”
By Dionisia Tabureguci
|
|
|
|
VoIP Providers List Information |
|
|
|
If you have any constructive thoughts, creative ideas, or reasonable offers, please, contact us.
|
|
Send Email to Helen O'Neill if you have any questions either about this website, or about VoIP providers, or VoIP in general.
|
|
Send Email to our technical support if you have any technical queries.
|
About VoIP Providers List
VoIP Providers List services save time for companies searching both for information and interconnection partners, interested in voice minutes exchange, i.e. VoIP minutes termination and origination, as well as hardware and software trade. We provide information on interconnection services, VoIP hardware solutions and VoIP software , as well as overall situation in the VoIP industry.
VoIP Providers List is constantly moderated, and thus we can guarantee that any VoIP provider published in the web-based company catalogue has provided accurate details on its services and operations.
We are constantly working on improvement and development of our services. Your comments and proposals regarding the services are highly welcome. Please, do not hesitate to contact us providing with your ideas, opinion, and feed-back. We will be grateful for any information and useful links on Voice over IP, VoIP hardware, VoIP software, and VoIP Providers. |
|
|
|
|
VoIP Providers Statistics |
|
|
Providers in database: 3315
Users Online: 425
|
|
|
