Connecting the South Pacific Islands to Encourage Growth and Market Liberalisation

Access to telecoms and Internet services in the South Pacific islands is currently not as readily available as in the Oceania region’s two largest markets, Australia and New Zealand. Many of the islands have only have one incumbent telco, which often provides all residential services: voice, and Internet access, as well as mobile services. On the very smallest islands this can makes economic sense, with the local economy so small that it is not able to support more than one operator. Some of these markets are ‘micro-states’ with populations below 10,000. Examples are Niue and Norfolk Island, both of whose telecoms industries will be represented at next month’s Oceania Com conference in Sydney, Australia. Telecom Niue is sending MD Richard Hipa to discuss the challenges of offering services in such unusual market conditions. Norfolk Island will be represented by Finance Minister Neville Christian, whose responsibilities also extend to telecommunications.

Sydney-based telecoms analyst Paul Budde writes that these especially small territories aside, “the majority of the islands do in fact have a large enough economy to sustain competition, although in most cases only one additional competitor could realistically supported.” Budde will be Chairing the Oceania Com conference, 7-8 July at the city’s Sheraton on the Park Hotel.

Consumers on a number of islands can already choose between competing mobile providers, a development due in large part to the entry of the Digicel Group, which since its launch in 2001, has become the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean. Digicel has more recently started to compete in Central American markets as well as in the Pacific, where it seems that solid experience of building networks in the context of island nations elsewhere offers the company competitive advantages.
Digicel Pacific will also be represented at Oceania Com by the GM of its Samoa operation, Christian Fruean. Digicel Samoa competes in the mobile space with the island’s incumbent telco, SamoaTel, also represented at the conference by CEO Mike Johnstone.

A unique feature of the Oceania Com gathering is that by offering delegate passes free of charge to all telcos in the region, the organisers are working to create a unique meeting point for the telcos of the island nations and the many competitive service providers of much larger Australia and New Zealand. Confefence Chairman Paul Budde, MD of BuddeComm, has expressed determination to offer the island telcos a rare chance to draw high-value transferable lessons from one another and from colleagues from the host country and New Zealand. Among those offering such insights will be Maha Krishnapillai, Director of Government and Corporate Affairs at Optus, an operator facing a mobile market that is almost at the point of saturation. Optus responded to Telstra’s Next G rollout with a planned increase in market coverage of its HSPA rollout from 96% to 98%, but time will tell whether this will have much impact on Telstra’s strong position in the regional markets away from Australia’s major population centres.

In addition to a strong roster of speakers from the Oceania region’s telcos, the conference will be boosted by visits from the telcoms minister of both Australia and New Zealand. The inpressive line-up of speakers includes:

• Hon David Cunliffe, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Government of New Zealand
• Hon Neville C. Christian, Minister for Finance and Communications, Government of Norfolk Island
• Christian Fruean, General Manager, Digicel Samoa
• Scott Bartlett, CEO, Orcom, New Zealand
• Mike Johnstone, CEO, SamoaTel
• Taito Tabaleka, CEO, Telecom Fiji
• Paul Broad, CEO, AAPT, Australia
• Eric Hamilton, COO, Australia Unwired
• Kristin Dunne Powell, CEO, Whoosh Wireless, New Zealand
• Richard Hipa, Managing Director, Telecom Niue
• Jean-Pierre Bienaimé, Chairman, UMTS Forum
• Robert Horton, Associate for Australia, Pacific and Far East, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation

For more information on the event and to register to participate, please visit:

www.ComWorldSeries.com/oceania