Justin Kaitapu and Jack Bourke, of Digicel Tonga. Nuku‘alofa, 31 October 2013.

Digicel Tonga Ltd. is looking to take the usage of mobile internet technology to a new level in Tonga, by linking its services to Tonga's new submarine fibre optic cable.

The mobile phone and internet company has leased fibre capacity from Tonga Cable Ltd., becoming the second carrier after the fibre was launched on 21 August 2013. Tonga Communications Corporation Tonga's other internet service provider, launched its own fibre service two months ago.

“It's an exciting time in Tonga and a milestone for Digicel Tonga … to see the benefits that our people will experience,” said CEO Jack Bourke ahead of the November 1 launch of Diginet's new retail packages. Its fibre services will be provided through Wimax.

He believed that the Tongan internet was no longer an elite product only for people who could afford it. “Mobile internet technology is a growth area for our business … and people need to understand that connectivity now is not just for homes it is mobile.”

He said they were building the awareness and education by giving people free access for the first three days, from today, “so they can come with their handsets and use the Wi-Fi available in town,” he said.

Although the use of the internet on smart phones was still a young market in Tonga Jack believed that it would grow, as global trends were showing that people would talk less on the phones, SMS would decline and data revenue or data appetite was expected to increase.

“The fibre is just an additional piece that enables us to [use] Skype, Facebook and do all different applications on our smart phones … and more data usage opens up whole new areas of opportunities,” he said.

Tonga

“It is exciting because when you see how many youths in Tonga have smart devices they are actually quite savvy when it comes to data consumption.”

Faster connectivity would allow better communication with families abroad. “What before was just a voice now could be a video conference,” he said.

“At the same time, Digicel is aware of some of the social challenges that comes with the fibre connectivity like cyber bullying and unauthorised access to adult content. We are doing our piece with the government to ensure limiting unauthorised accessibility to that content.”

Investment

Jack said the company did not go live when the fibre was launched because they have a  stringent process within the business internationally because there is a significant investment from their side. 

“Justin Kaitapu and I had to put a compelling reason in a business case against the odds and we were successful and that success will come into fruition on November 1,” he said.

They were aware that the last two months on the old system was a frustrating and challenging time for a majority of their customers.

Convenient devices

Digicel’s Chief Technical Officer, Justin Kaitapu, said the reason why the Tongan public was embracing the new mobile internet technology came down simply to cost. The trend was moving away from personal computers to handheld devices like tablets and smart phones  because it was more convenient and cost effective for the customer.

"Smart phones, tablets and other handheld devices are now more than capable for email and Skype.”

He said Digicel will use wireless technology to extend the fibre from Tonga Cable to the end users.

Justin said the challenge had always been from day one no matter what the technology one used on the island, whether it was the latest or the previous, it would always hit that bottleneck of that everything was on satellite.

"Now with fibre coming in we are very much looking forward to the launch on November 1 because that will basically revolutionise the whole system regardless of what we have on the system," he said.