Teletok, a local telecommunications company in Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean, has selected Kacific to deliver its new generation of high-speed broadband across its territory and surrounding waters.
Composed of three small atolls situated north of Samoa, Tokelau is a Polynesian territory of New Zealand with a population of just 1,400.
With no airport in Tokelau, a chartered vessel MV PB Matua, operated under an arrangement between New Zealand and Tokelau, is the only means of transport to and from the islands at present: the trip from Apia in Samoa takes over a day.
But despite its small size and remoteness, Tokelau is committed to thriving in a digital world.
Although connectivity is expensive, the country has seen a pattern of moderate internet usage in recent years and a rate of internet penetration comparable to other, more populous Pacific countries.
Fast, low cost broadband from Kacific will dramatically change the communication landscape of this territory enabling affordable, direct-to-premises access to e-Government applications, providing better access to online resources for knowledge management and connectivity of assets including energy generation systems and transportation.
“The provision of affordable, accessible low-cost, high-speed broadband will enable Tokelau to make significant and rapid progress in key policy areas including good governance and the development of our people, infrastructure and economy,” says Tealofi Enosa, CEO, Teletok.
“By supporting these four priority development goals of the Tokelau National Strategic Plan, it will fundamentally change every aspect of life in Tokelau.”
In particular, Enosa believes it will provide high-speed broadband to passengers on-board the passenger vessels while en-route to and from Tokelau.
The advent of affordable, resilient, high-rate connectivity will also improve the health, education and social wellbeing of Tokelauan communities helping to improve the monitoring of communicable diseases, enabling remote diagnostics, and supporting training and e-health campaigns.
Enosa says primary and secondary students and their teachers will be able to access distance learning and curriculum resources from New Zealand while Tokelauans will be able to communicate better with family members who have gone overseas to live.
And, for the first time, all Tokelauans will be able to access television services.
“When we designed our service we had in mind the need for it to be easily adapted to meet the needs of small, isolated, sparsely populated countries like Tokelau,” adds Christian Patouraux, CEO, Kacific.
“Tokelau is a text-book case for Kacific: the agreement with Teletok validates our approach, so we’re delighted.”
Kacific will deploy a single high power beam from its Ka-band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) to cover the three atolls. And will provide sufficient capacity to ensure a reliable and affordable service with ample room to grow and expand.
Tokelauans on all three atolls will receive equally outstanding service quality and will be able to enjoy high throughput speeds using only small (75cm to 1.2m diameter) inexpensive terminals.
Kacific expects to launch its Kacific-1 satellite by early 2017 and to provide operational service shortly thereafter.
This agreement is the sixth that Kacific has signed since it announced its intention to provide a satellite-based broadband service, in December 2013.