Telecommunications in Tuvalu cover

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( ) is an island country in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (which belong to the Solomon Islands), northeast of Van ...

's 6 atolls and 3

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

islands. The

islands of Tuvalu Tuvalu consists of nine separate islands: six atolls and three reef islands. An atoll typically consists of several motus: Tuvalu has a total of 124 islands and islets. Each island is surrounded by a coral reef. The soils of Tuvalu's islands are ...

rely on satellite dishes for communication and internet access. The

Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) is a state-owned enterprise of Tuvalu, which provides fixed-line telephone communications to subscribers on each of the islands of Tuvalu. Each island in Tuvalu relies on TTC for the use of a satellite ...

(TTC), a state-owned enterprise, provides fixed line telephone communications to subscribers on each island and mobile phone services on

Funafuti Funafuti is an atoll, comprising numerous islets, that serves as the capital of Tuvalu. As of the 2017 census, it has a population of 6,320 people. More people live in Funafuti than the rest of Tuvalu combined, with it containing approximately 6 ...

, Vaitupu and Nukulaelae. TTC is a distributor of Fiji Television service ( Sky Pacific satellite television service).

Telephones

Telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

s - main lines in use: 2,000 (2021) Telephones - mobile cellular: 9000 (2021) Telephone system:
''domestic:'' fixed-line teledensity is 18 per 100 and mobile-cellular is 80 per 100
''international:'' country code - 688; international calls can be made by satellite

Radio and television

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 0,

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

0 (2011) - The Tuvalu Media Department of the Government of Tuvalu operates ''Radio Tuvalu'', which broadcasts on the AM frequency. In 2011 the Japanese government provided financial support to construct a new AM broadcast studio. The new AM radio transmitter on Funafuti replaced the FM radio service to the outer islands and freed up satellite bandwidth for mobile services. Radios: 4,000 (1997)

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

broadcast stations: TTC is a distributor of Fiji Television service (Sky Pacific satellite television service). Televisions: unknown number.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

(Top level domain): TV (see .tv) ''Tuvalu.tv'' is the sole provider of Internet access in Tuvalu. The ISP is operated by the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Department of the Government of Tuvalu. In 2012 the available bandwidth was only 512 kbit/s uplink, and 1.5 Mbit/s downlink. Throughout Tuvalu are more than 900 subscribers who want to use the satellite service, with demand slowing down the speed of the entire system. TTC currently operates satellite internet services with less than 20 Mbit/s of capacity. In June 2014 TTC signed a five-year agreement with Kacific Broadband Satellites for the supply of provide high speed bandwidth to the islands of Tuvalu. From 2017 the service was provided by the Kacific-1 satellite -

Ka band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The designation "Ka-band" is from Kurz-above, which stems from the German word ''kurz,'' meaning "short". There ...

High-throughput satellite (HTS) provided by Kacific Broadband Satellites which provided TTC with increased levels of capacity over the period. In July 2020, the Government of Tuvalu signed a five-year agreement with Kacific for 400 Mbps to 600 Mbps of satellite capacity. the agreement provides a comprehensive turnkey service including sixty 1.2 metre VSAT terminals (satellite dishes) for schools, medical clinics, government agencies and small businesses, forty outdoor WiFi access points to support community connectivity with WiFi hotspots, three maritime antennae to connect ferry services, and one Ka-band antennae to provide trunking and backhaul services for the mobile phone network. As of February 2022, the delivered satellite capacity into Tuvalu was a combined capacity of 510 mbps split between Agility Beyond Space (ABS) (

Ku Band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K ban ...

) and Kacific (

). The average download of data per device is about 9 GB/user/month, with 95% of devices in use being 4G/ LTE capable. Also, Tuvalu has 5,915 active broadband users (the largest base of users is on Funafuti), with dedicated satellite and hotspot users on the outer islands, each of which has 3 to 5 hotspots.

Tuvalu Telecommunications and ICT Development Project

In January 2019 the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

approved a US$29 million grant for the Tuvalu Telecommunications and ICT Development Project which is intended to boost internet connectivity in Tuvalu, including to the country's outer islands. The project will also support investments in an international

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

submarine cable to provide faster, lower-cost internet bandwidth. The project will include reforms of the

(TCC) to redevelop the government-run entity as a public-private partnership (PPP) in cooperation with an experienced international telecommunications operator, which will be selected using a competitive process. The project will involve the government of Tuvalu using a submarine cable system to connect

atoll to the international optical fibre network. The private sector partner in the PPP will be responsible for the design, installation and operation of the cable and network. The preferred option is to connect to the proposed Southern Cross NEXT optical fibre project at

Nukunonu Nukunonu, formerly known as Duke of Clarence Island, is the largest atoll within Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand in the south Pacific Ocean. It comprises 30 islets surrounding a central lagoon, with about of land area and a lagoon surfac ...

Tokelau Tokelau (; ; known previously as the Union Islands, and, until 1976, known officially as the Tokelau Islands) is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean. It consists of three tropical coral atolls: Atafu, Nukunonu, an ...

. As of October 2023, further planning will be carried out to determine the exact cable route and landing site in Funafuti as described in the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP).

References

{{Telecommunications