THE Premier of Makira Ulawa Province Julian Maka’a has expressed his unhappiness with poor telecommunications services provided by Our Telekom in the province.
He uttered the sentiment July 22, 2020, in Kira Kira, the Provincial Capital, while addressing a meeting organized by the Ministry of Aviation and Communications to discuss with his Government the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2020.
Honiara sent Alwin Danitofea, the Director of Communications, Ms. Rachel Jagilly the Secretary of Communications and Mr. Wilson Leguvaka, the Regulator of Telecommunications Commission of the Solomon Islands of the Ministry of Communications and Aviation to lead the discussions on the Telecommunications Amendment.
Mr. Maka’a said in these days of modern technology, telecommunications is important not only, to the outside world, but also to the Solomon Islands.
He said his province of Makira Ulawa, is still in the dark-age with banking services being dependent on good communication services provided by Our Telekom.
Mr. Maka’a said teachers from around the province feel the hardest of the poor communications services provided by Our Telekom when they arrive in Kira Kira to collect their money from Bank South Pacific (BSP).
He said they have to wait for up to two days waiting for BSP Agency staff to update their bank accounts.
The Makira Ulawa Provincial Government operates the BSP Agency in Kira Kira.
Premier Maka’a hoped the meeting had fruitful discussions and reached useful outcomes.
Meanwhile, Communications Director Danitofea said the communications sector has grown in the Solomon Islands from the days it depended on two-way radios and telephone land-lines which were very costly.
He said then broadband services and mobile services were introduced into the country less than 20 years ago and now are very popular as subscribers can send text and email messages and even make calls from mobiles to anywhere and everywhere around the globe.
Mr. Danitofea said communications through mobiles have reduced the size of the world into a global village where people can communicate with one another in a matter of minutes.
He said information technology communications (ICT) and Telekom provide services that were not available before, but there are national side effects.
The national side effects, Mr. Danitofea said, are the determining factors for the need to amend the Telecommunications Act 2009.
He said an amended telecommunications law will basically have legal implications on SIM cards which will be confidential, but people’s safety will be assured.
But why would SIM cards pose threats to people’s safety…read the next story to find out the reasons.
By George Atkin
In Kira Kira
