Telecom 3 bring home benefits from Papeete

Three senior Telecom Cook Islands representatives were due back from Papeete at the weekend after attending a meeting that will benefit all Cook Islanders.
Chief executive Stuart Davies, general manager telecoms Ngatama Aniterea and information technology manager Robert McFadzien have been at the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) annual conference.
Key issues on the agenda included:
n Building a regional disaster and emergency communications system for the Pacific Islands;
- Expanding mobile phone roaming options for the Pacific Islands;
- Fighting fraud and the hijacking of Pacific Islands country telephone numbers;
- Deploying the Next Generation Technology (NGT);
- Developing telecommunications access for small islands and rural areas;
- Addressing possible loss of some satellite use for small islands economies;
- Development of key skills in Pacific Islands telecommunications.
There were also be discussions of solutions presented by the industry suppliers in satellite communications, mobile, next generation networks, wireless technologies and equipment.
The meeting was hosted and organised by Tahiti’s OPT (Office des Postes et Télécommunications).
PITA’s members include the main Pacific Islands telecom operators, as well as regulating bodies, equipment manufacturers, and service providers.
OPT’s Maui Sanford stressed the challenges facing regional telecom operators relying on both satellites and underwater cables to provide bandwidth to the growing number of new technology users.
Among the challenges were to balance high costs of data transportation in an island environment and keeping up with new technologies to make them more affordable for users.
Several presentations focused on mobile and wireless data transmission and telecommunication

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