Telecom
Fintel, Telecom Fiji Debate ISP Territorial Rights
So it takes 10 hours to download data onto your PC or one hour to connect to the Web, a frustrating experience one could do without. Fiji International Telecommunications Limited¹s (FINTEL) new Internet facility in Suva offers computer savvy customers an option. Although charges are 25 cents a minute, compared with the usual 16 cents to 22 cents rate, FINTEL's General Manager Engineering & Business Development Timoci Ledua says that for a few cents more FINTEL, Fiji's international telecommunications provider, offers the customer five times the speed or more than what one normally gets. The target market is people involved in downloading or sending bulk data.
So we have improved service. But whether FINTEL is in its legal rights to provide a domestic service, normally Telecom Fiji Limited¹s responsibility, is somewhat of a grey area, which both telecom providers are mulling over. FINTEL's Internet lines were disrupted early last month sparking allegations that Telecom Fiji may have done so because supposedly FINTEL was encroaching onto its territory.
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Ledua believes the action arose from a misinterpretation over FINTEL¹s licence. "Although they hold the monopoly, our licence clearly states that as long we use TFL¹s network and not our own we¹re clearly within the legal means," says Ledua.
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According to existing telecom regulation, FINTEL leases a line from Telcom Fiji and pays the domestic telecommunications provider for it. Telecom Fiji provides all the linkages for FINTEL between the coastal Vatuwaqa Gateway and Mercury House (FINTEL's location in downtown Suva).
Telecom Fiji chief executive Winston Thompson was on leave when the decision to cut FINTEL's Internet connections was made.
Thompson says that a misunderstanding arose over the connections to Mercury House resulting in an unintentional disconnection.
"There are some grey areas in the issues of the licenses, which we¹re both looking into," says Thompson.
"Where is the boundary between the two licenses? As we see it the boundary is at the Vatuwaqa Gateway. Anything from Vatuwaqa out to the international network is FINTEL's area and anything from the gateway in is Telecom's. "And it's in that interface that the issue arose. To what extent can one operate in another¹s territory?"
The service available at FINTEL¹s kiosk on Victoria Parade, Suva, permits a range of multimedia functions such as video conferencing and live broadcasts. At the moment the speed at which the service is connected to is 640 K shared between 10 terminals. But not all are in use at any one time. Ledua cites public distrust of FINTEL for supposedly violating ISP regulations and supposedly providing an illegal service. Ideally Ledua wants both FINTEL and Telecom Fiji to work in the same direction.
"The regulatory unit is there. If there are any complaints about my licence then go to the regulator," says Ledua.
"Although FINTEL has provided this access Telecom Fiji should come in and say All right we¹ll offer a better service."
"Customers are demanding quality service. To me it¹s raising the level of service. The very existence of TFL and FINTEL is to provide service to customers. To me as long as we compete on level ground, we should raise the performance bar."
When government had sold part of its shareholding in Telecom Fiji in 1998 to Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) it undertook that it would not change the terms of licences of operation for at least five years. A consideration of $253 million was paid, a sum that Thompson asserts is in recognition of the exclusive status. A revocation of a licence calls for compensation. Whatever the reason for the kiosk, it sets the benchmark of what Internet services can be in the future in terms of speed and quality.
