Telecom Fiji Limited has embarked on a technological transition phase whereby it is phasing out its aged analogue systems to much more advanced digital IP-based systems.

Once complete, Fiji’s telecom infrastructure will be placed on par with the developed nations, stated Telecom Fiji chief executive, Mothilal De Silva.

Mr De Silva confirmed nearly 50 per cent of populated areas have been upgraded as they dismantle the old technology.

“We are planning to complete this exercise in the next quarter,” he said.

He further emphasised this technological transition would bring about much improved efficiencies in terms of customer experience and service delivery.

Mr De Silva also revealed they will be undertaking a major transformation project to increase capacity of their satellite infrastructure to empower Fijians in far flung areas of the country.

He made these comments on Thursday evening as the company launched its Connect 4G+ services at the Grand Pacific Hotel.

Telecom Fiji successfully piloted the services since June and offered this service to nearly 1000 customers as early adopters.

Mr De Silva said they received highly positive feedback on Social Media on the service.

He said TFL started building capacity, upgrading to achieve better speeds and performance using multiple access technologies.

This, he said, was in order to cater for the demands of different market segments.

“All these technologies are complementary solutions, not replacing one for the other,” he said.

“Under fixed wireless network upgrades, we bring the mini exchanges closer to homes.

Transitioning

After making Telecom Fiji a profitable and self-sustaining company, the management decided to embark on a journey of transitioning TFL to the future.

And this transition is being done in an orderly, gradual, meticulous and cost effective manner, Mr De Silva said.

He said: “TFL is in the midst of transformation. In the past few years, TFL transitioned from its position as an incumbent operator to a player in a very competitive environment.

“During this transition, we have had to speed up in our Time to Market, become customer centric while introducing various technologies that enable us to leapfrog our legacy infrastructures.”

Mr De Silva said amongst other things, they have had problems with obsolete network technologies that had high maintenance cost and poor service delivery to deal with.

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