By Sandra Ah Sam
The Commerce Commission on IPv6 in Fiji
The sole bandwidth provider (FINTEL) must now accept applications from parties interested to access the cable directly and must connect them within six weeks.
In return, these parties will pay certain core maintenance fees to FINTEL.
Commission Chairman Doctor Mahendra Reddy said this move will not only ease access to the Internet but this would also see Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) penetrate through Fiji.
With increased ICT penetration, there are several benefits to the nation.
It will increase literacy levels, improve ease of education delivery, reduce the cost of doing business and contribute towards firms efficiency gains.
“Fiji is lagging behind in terms of the rapidly changing global technology and people are encouraged by this move to participate in a rapid changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by the access to developing technologies.”
Mr Reddy believes that the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, which has a vastly larger address space than IPv4 in Fiji will move slow due to two key reasons.
Firstly, the infrastructure for such transfer of technology is not readily available.
Secondly, education on the benefits of such transfer are also lacking amongst the users.
However, the new move by the commission will see more people in the country accessing the net at a cheaper rate within the next two years.
This will result in an increase in ICT penetration in the country which will increase economic activity and productivity in the country.
This move will also see more competition between Internet Service Providers and end users will benefit from this since prices will continue to decrease.
The decision marks the complete deregulation of the telecommunications market with Internet Service Providers by giving a chance to access the Southern Cross Cable network with immediate effect.
