FINTEL is looking into investing in alternative cable systems and different landing stations.

FINTEL chief executive, George Samisoni, explained this was necessary to undertake because otherwise Fiji has only one landing station and one cable system (Southern Cross Cable).

He said the concern is if the cable breaks or the system goes down, there would no/hardly any connectivity for Fiji and the region.

Mr Samisoni said this was because the only other alternative was using satellite system but given our demand for bandwidth, the connection would be very slow and we have limited capacity.

Mr Samisoni was speaking during the 2016 Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation Forum at the Sheraton Fiji Resort on Denarau Island.

He stressed once the landing station at Savusavu comes online, which will connect the Souther Cross Cable through to Samoa, there will be some relief.

“We also have other cable systems coming in such as Southern Cross 2 and Hawaiki,” he said.

But Mr Samisoni said these are capital intensive projects requiring millions of dollars.

And thus, he is grateful for Asian Development Bank and the World Bank of their aid for such projects.

Edited By: RACHNA LAL

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