Fiji - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Advanced 4G LTE services arrive in Fiji

Fiji plays an important role in the Pacific Islands as it is one of the most advanced economies in the region. Fijian citizens rely heavily on telecommunication services in order to stay connected in an increasingly globalised society.

Fiji presents a challenging geographic environment for infrastructure development generally, due to its population being spread across more than 100 islands. However the majority of Fijians live on the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

In 2018 the Fijian government implemented plans to connect the two major islands via a submarine cable system - and this will provide high-speed Internet access to the residents of Fiji's second largest island.

This will also provide a more secure link between the two islands in times of emergency weather events like the regular tropical cyclones which often cause much destruction to this area. These natural disasters often destroy infrastructure including electricity and telecoms equipment.

The rural, remote and maritime communities of Fiji will also receive a boost to their communication services in 2018 with the Fijian government's television infrastructure arm, Walesi, obtaining more satellite capacity from Eutelsat. This will allow Free-to-Air (FTA) television to be broadcast to wider range of remote communities.

Overall, Fiji hosts a relatively sophisticated communications infrastructure with the highest mobile and Internet penetration in the Pacific islands. Further improvements to networks are continuing with Digicel Fiji rolling out its LTE-A network in the more highly populated areas of Fiji.

Key developments:

ATH was given regulatory approval to acquire BlueSky Cook Islands in late 2017.
Fiji is demonstrating initial progress towards 5G readiness.
Pricing reductions in data and hardware together with an increase in bandwidth availability have seen mobile broadband penetration increase dramatically over the last couple of years.
Communications Fiji Limited (CFL) sold its minority shareholding (12.5%) in Unwired Fiji to Digicel in June 2017.

Companies covered in this report include:

Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH), Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL), Fiji International Telecommunications Limited (FINTEL), Pacific Emerging Technologies (PET), Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN), Vodafone Fiji Limited (VFL), Digicel Fiji, Inkk Mobile, Unwired Fiji, Fintel Internet Services (Kidanet).