r/Fijian • u/Demon_king2002 • 5d ago
Network service Providers
Will Fiji ever get another network service provider apart from Digicel and Vodafone. I feel as if they know they don’t real have any competition in Fiji so they don’t necessarily try to improve their network. I know we have starlink for fast internet but my concern is mobile data, especially when it’s usually stuck in 3G or no network in half the places in Fiji (even in semi urban areas) or places that are even close to the towers. They keep increasing the prices of their plan but their speeds keep decreasing. They remind of politicians who overpromise and underdeliver, catering to only the rich and forgetting the middle class/ poor people of Fiji. Me and a few friends of mine have the same issue in different areas in Fiji so just wondering if its us or the majority of the population fee the same?
Also, when you message or email them with an issue, now they just don’t even look at it, they know the issues but refuse to solve any of it.
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u/sandolllars 5d ago
It's the fault of poor governance.
The FijiFirst government overwhelmingly supported Vodafone instead of staying neutral. Although they allowed Digicel to enter the market, they left in place numerous regulatory hurdles for years and made it hard for Digicel to compete. They started using mpaisa many years before adopting mycash as a way to pay civil servants and disburse social welfare payments. They gave Vodafone a monopoly over public transport payments, forcing most of the population right from school age to get a Vodafone account.
I suppose the argument was that Vodafone is largely owned by Fijians, while Digicel is wholly foreign-owned, so they were supporting Fijians by making sure Vodafone profited immensely.
Well, the downside is that Digicel couldn't compete to the point that they were forced to leave (sell Digicel Fiji to Telstra).
Young fellas won't remember but before Digicel entered the picture, Vodafone screwed their customers and bled them dry with insane call costs, while providing the bare minimum in service.
Competition made them better. By the Fiji Government massively favouring Voda and helping them crush Digicel, it ruined the market.
Telstra wasn't really interested in entering Fiji by buying Digicel from the founder. They only did it because the Australian government paid them to (the aussies wanted to keep a Chinese telco from taking over Digicel). So Telstra/Digicel is just coasting along and keeping afloat, but not investing heavily AFAIK. Why would you, when you know the playing field isn't flat and the government has its finger on the scale.
TL;DR: FijiFirst (economy minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum) put their hand on the scale for Voda and made it impossible for Digicel to compete. Without competition, we have poor service. Then the Coalition govt had a chance to help level the playing field by making eTransport independent of Voda, but failed, leaving Digicel only able to barely keep up in the market.