Rarotonga, Cook Islands: Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce is pleased that telecommunications will - at last - be open to competition, and that all parties, including Telecom Cook Islands, are now working constructively towards that goal.

“Competition will promote new technology, improved pricing, and a greater focus on quality of service, reliability and customer support,” says the chamber.
The private sector business organisation says as new technologies become available at an astonishing rate, it is important the Cook Islands maintains its position in the world marketplace.

“Competition tends to spur that innovation, and the adoption of newer/faster/better services to attract business.

“A number of simple services which are common place overseas are currently prohibitive or painfully slow here at the moment.

“Tourism operators want to offer live webcams and virtual tours of their hotels and motels; these are great marketing tools. Tourists - and business travellers - expect 21st century communication facilities to be available, and are happy to pay for them,” says the chamber.

“Businesses need video-conferencing capability, and sufficient bandwidth to network to clients, suppliers, and head office. Our schools - indeed the general public - need REAL broadband at reasonable rates.

At the moment, local internet traffic (within Rarotonga) is charged at international rates, which inhibits local businesses going on-line to local customers - it is hoped this can change”. The chamber says a number of excellent opportunities for the outer islands will open up when real broadband is readily available there.

“These include remote-schooling, tele-medicine, tourism marketing and numerous business possibilities that flow from the improved services”.

The chamber says, in addition, there will be those who wish to ‘go it alone’ with new, individual, technologies, like satellite phones, and internet (BGAN, O3B, VSAT), which have a number of applications, including remote area communication and disaster relief.

“Government of course will also reap the same benefits available to the general public, including - it is hoped - reduced costs.

“Tele-conferencing might even reduce the need for travel overseas, with considerable savings in airfares, hotel bills, and greenhouse gas emissions”.

And the chamber says while a delay in getting the legislation changed is unfortunate, it is most important that the process of introducing competition is done properly.

“The chamber acknowledges the need for a careful transition, to ensure that issues of technical compatibility, fair interconnection regimes, and other regulatory matters, are properly managed in an independent and transparent manner”.