Remote businesses are now getting connected!
Internet has become an enabler for innovation and trade in today’s digitalised world. It is imperative that affordable solutions are available for the people and businesses to foster economic growth, social inclusion, and meeting consumer demand. There are still some people, small businesses and schools that do not have access to internet solutions, particularly those living in rural remote areas or maritime islands where there is fringe to no network coverage.
These remote and rural communities who were typically beyond the reach of traditional network coverage can now benefit from affordable access to internet, delivered via satellite from Vodafone Fiji. The solution offers a simple and convenient way to connect remote areas and offices to the internet. Web browsing, streaming videos, accessing your favorite social media sites & apps are all possible. Vodafone is adding value by bundling phone system with this solution, so businesses, government offices, schools and health centers in these remote areas can connect and communicate.
“In today’s digital age, it is important that every individual has access to Internet. As an essential services provider, Vodafone continuously strives to bring innovative and cost-effective solutions to connect people, businesses, and communities, even in the hard-to-reach remote locations. We continue to invest in solutions, so all Fijians can benefit, take advantage of innovation in digital technology and improve their lives. The solution is scalable and can be tailored to suit household use, community use and generate business”, said Ronald Prasad, Vodafone’s Chief Commercial Officer.
Vodafone recently deployed this solution in the highlands of Namosi to connect remote communities and based on the success, this model is now being replicated across other communities. Another recent implementation has been with Fiji Pine Group of Companies, an important contributor to the Fijian economy and an industry on which many landowners depend. Fiji Pine leads innovation in forest management and value-adding to local timber resources. They have many operations running from the interiors of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. For a long time, Fiji Pine have struggled with communicating with four of their forest stations in Bua, Ra, Nabou and Uto in the interior of Nadi. The employees would travel a few kilometres from the stations daily to reach coverage areas to communicate and send reports to the head office in Drasa, Lautoka.
Osea Daveta, IT Manager at Fiji Pine Group of Companies said, “We faced a lot of difficulties in communicating with our teams at forest stations. Our management did not have proper visibility of the operations. We explored solutions from multiple vendors, however, the huge upfront cost associated with satellite solutions and high ongoing costs were prohibitive. Vodafone’s cost-effective Satellite Internet solution has broken this barrier and best of all it uses a small form factor to deliver effective and reliable internet connectivity. This enabled our staff onsite to send daily reports on operations of nursery, logging, harvesting, slashing, inventory, restocking, etc from the comfort of their office; no longer having to travel away from the station office. This greatly assisted in timely decisions and productivity. Vodafone’s bundled Cloud Telephony provided enterprise grade communication solution and features. We are delighted with Vodafone’s services, level of support and out of the box thinking to get usconnected”.
Vodafone Fiji partnered with Kacific, a next-generation broadband satellite operator to develop this reliable, affordable and easy to deploy turnkey solution, designed specifically to connect more Fijians from remote areas.
Ashwin Bahadur, Head of Sales, Pacific, Kacific Broadband Satellite Group said, “We are pleased to be working with Vodafone Fiji to deliver affordable internet solutions to remote Fijian communities, which will in turn benefit end customers as Fijian businesses can now connect to the outside world and can do better with the use of high-speed satellite internet.”
