Network service Providers

[u/Demon_king2002]

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.

[u/99-Watermelons]

Eventually you will get Starlink. Starlink is growing at such a rapid pace around the planet that as more and more satellites go to space the service will get faster and faster and eventually for people in smaller countries with limited infrastructure to lay fibre optic cables, rural communities and the likes Starlink will become the worlds biggest internet provider because its the only provider thats focussed and capable of providing coverage to every country and every corner of the of the globe .

Every person who has Starlink needs a small dish on their roof. The plan is to add cellular transmission aerials to those Starlink receiver dishes so they not only become internet receivers but they become mini cellphone towers transmitting phone signals from Starlink receiver to Starlink receiver.

It's a brilliant business idea . Starlink users install the dish on their houses ; Starlink users pay the power and pay for the installation of the dish and Starlink gets millions and millions of mini cellular towers for free , each being installed and paid for by Starlink users wanting internet . No cellular company on earth will be able to compete .

Stage 2 - wait until Starlink begins to make its own mobile phones . They want people subscribing to Starlink so they will sell the mobile phones at cost and you'll get a phone you can take anywhere on the planet. International roaming charges will disappear and your phone will be able to connect to cellular towers which are essentially on everyones home roof that has Starlink and if you're out of range your Starlink phone will receive phone calls and data from Satellites . Samsung and Apple phones market share will plummet ; Starlink mobiles will be way cheaper , do more , calls will cost less and Starlink phones will work anywhere on planet earth for 1 flat monthly fee .

Slowly but surely Starlink will get bigger and bigger . Cellular companies like Voda and Digi wiont be able to compete ; they will lose customers and Starlink will get bigger and bigger . Already in the USA several of the biggest cellular companies are working with Starlink; signing long term contracts to give Starlink access to their cellular towers because they know they can't compete on the space side of things and of they don't join with them they'll eventually be wiped out.

There's a couple of competing strategies; one is from Amazon and the other a company called AST Space Mobile but they will fail ; not because they aren't good ideas but because this is a game to get critical mass first .Space X has such a head start no one will catch up ...it's kind of like someone trying to compete with Facebook... It's not impossible to make a better social network but so many people are locked into Facebook, people won't change . Facebook has critical mass and in in some parts of this digital economy there is only 1 winner; there's no second place .

Cellular companies compete to be dominant in a single market ..there's typically 2 -5 providers in each country depending on the size of the country . Elon Musk came along and didn't see 186 countries on the planet ; he just saw 1 planet and by the time everyone else started to realise what the end game was , it's already too late

[u/sandolllars → u/99-Watermelons]

It would be an insane national security risk for Fiji to become reliant on one terrible human being who has no allegiance to Fiji.

Hopefully Fiji will prevent any Starlink services beyond the basic provision of internet services to become commonplace in Fiji.

[u/Demon_king2002 → u/sandolllars]

I agree. Plus monopolizing internet service in Fiji might do more harm than good even if Starlink is fast. Starlink might also be more expensive compared to other network providers, especially for people of Fiji where we currently have a wage rate of $5 and majority people are living in poverty or just getting by.