“As a resident of Falelima we remain in the digital shadow. On a good day, if I am lucky and under the right weather conditions I can stand on a particular rock in our plantation and make a phone call or receive messages. Beyond that, forget it”.
The decision by the Regulator to order the cessation of operation by Starlink raises a number of concerns. Justification for this stance appears to be based on emotive and unqualified statements such as the “Starlink services posing a risk to public safety, national security and integrity of Samoa’s telecommunications infrastructure”. Scary stuff if it is at all true. Yet over 40 countries have adopted Starlink with no perceived safety, security or risk being evident.
Has Starlink been given the opportunity to refute such claims or is this a blanket ban? How this episode plays out will be revealed in due course. As consumers of telecommunications services, we await the outcome of this issue, the response from Starlink, from MCIL and from the respective Ministers.
Meanwhile the 2 major service providers in Samoa must be breathing a sigh of relief. Their duopoly has been protected, at least for the time being. Let’s be honest here : the service delivered by both of these international companies is not reliable, not fast and certainly not cost effective.
There are many parts of the country, Savaii in particular, where there is NO SERVICE or the service delivery is so poor and unreliable to be non-existant. As a resident of Falelima we remain in the digital shadow. On a good day, if I am lucky and under the right weather conditions I can stand on a particular rock in our plantation and make a phone call or receive messages. Beyond that, forget it.
As Government functions and services, education, health service, banking, retailing, commerce, information, entertainment and day to day communication is increasingly reliant of internet service, why are so many parts of the country without service?
I challenge our relevant minister to bring our district (and others) into the new millennium and to enable reliable internet service.
I challenge the two service providers to use some of their substantial annual profits and invest into infrastructure for those parts of the country where service is poor, unreliable or non-existant.
Meanwhile we all look forward to the Starlink’s and the Regulator’s response which, like other countries, might just enable reliable and cost effective telecommunications service without the risk to safety or security.
~ Nah Folasā
