Cable Moves Excite Cabinet Minister
By Elizabeth Ah-Hi
January 31, 2018
The future is exciting for the Information Communication Technology (I.C.T.) in Samoa.
That’s the belief of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Afamasaga Rico Tupai, who provided an update about the state of the Tui Samoa Cable as well as other key I.C.T. related developments during a press conference yesterday.
He also spoke about the Government’s objective to capitalize on Samoa’s central position in the Pacific and the agreements they have entered into in a bid to attract more business from overseas.
“We are launching to Samoa next week on Friday,” he said.
“The launch is to officiate that the work of the government is complete in building the submarine cable and bringing it on to land and its ready for service to the private sector and the communication operators like internet operators,” he said
The Minister acknowledged that there would be some teething problems during the transition but that's to be expected.
“We won’t be 100 percent in realizing the supersonic powers of this cable immediately after its officiated on the 9th according to the operators,” he said.
“But this is the nature of the submarine work because immediately after, there’s been talk that the cable is coming but like I said it’s the nature of the work – nobody believes anything until it actually reaches land.”
Part of the delays in the initial stages of operation has to do with communication operators finishing out their contracts with satellite service before they begin switching to the cable.
“These operators they have contracts with satellite companies,” he said.
“Our communication at the moment is based on the satellite service so they are trying to finish off satellite services before they can fully load their services onto the cable.
“The services will slowly be going onto the cable so you may still find that when you wake up on the 10th that your internet is still slow but eventually it will improve.
“This is the work of the private sector and the telecommunication operators to slowly get their service onto the cable. It’s an opportunity also for them once we give the cable out to them to start realizing what needs to be upgraded within their systems. It’s only then they can find out what needs to be and what can be done to improve services.”
The Minister also announced that this week, they would officially put a tender for a supplier to build the Manatua cable.
