Tonga Communications Corporation has paid a dividend of $839,987 Pa‘anga to the Ministry of Public Enterprise, the majority shareholder of the company.

This represents Government’s dividend for the financials for the year ended 30 June 2013, the TCC stated today.

Aloma Johansson, chairperson of the TCC Board said that the amount represented forty percent of the total profit after tax raised by the company. She noted that the company made an overall profit of $2.0 million Pa‘anga representing an increase of 31% over the previous year (2012).

Receiving the cheque, Hon. Fe‘ao Vakata, Minister for Public Enterprises, commended the TCC board, management and the staff for their performance in the past year. “Government acknowledges the stiff competition in the telecommunications industry currently, and therefore assures you of its support in the company’s programmes and projects,” he said.

TCC currently operates 2.75G and 3G mobile as well as 4G communications networks supporting multimedia and mobile Internet services. It was the first service provider in Tonga to launch mobile 3G services in December 2013. Its local coverage spans all island groups of Tonga, including the Niuas, while international roaming services are also provided. The company has invested in securing bandwidth to Tonga via a submarine cable, and has launched DSL 2+ high speed broadband Services, along with radio and optical fibre based transmission infrastructure facilities.