SATSOL and Bmobile Solomon Islands signs interconnection agreement

By Alfred Pagepitu

SATSOL Limited signed an interconnection agreement with Bmobile Solomon Islands Limited in Honiara on Thursday.

The agreement will allow SATSOL to extend its offerings to include voice services to its existing customer base country-wide.

Anthony Ferris, Chief Executive Officer of SATSOL, stated that the agreement will benefit Solomon Islanders by improving connection services.

“Today, we had a very important signing of what is known as an interconnect, which is between two networks.

“It is a legal requirement to interconnect, and B-Mobile has graciously accepted to interconnect with us.”

He explained that every Solomon Islander has the right to choose the network they want to use. There is the Telekom network and the B-Mobile network, among others.

“We’re all coming together. This interconnectivity allows Solomon Islanders, no matter which network they are connected to, to connect to any other network.”

“It brings competition, it brings the price down, and it brings quality of service up. So it’s very beneficial for the Solomon Islands.

“I’d like to thank Bmobile for their generosity in recognizing the benefits it provides to the nation. We look forward to working with them in the future.

“So within Bmobile now, we are looking forward to signing with Our Telecom,” he said.

He added, with B-Mobile, it has only been about 12 months, and the agreement we signed today was exactly the same as the one Bmobile had with Telekom.

Antony Ferris said this will encourage competition resulting in more innovation and better products benefitting all Solomon Islanders.

“In relation to this agreement, it’s not just about intercompany competition and all that sort of stuff. It also extends to the benefit of the Solomon Islands,” Ferris said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of Bemobile, Amos Tepi, thanked SATSOL for the partnership.

“Today marks a milestone for us as a team here in Solomon Islands Bemobile, and for a long time, we’ve been working on this. We thought it’s the right time to do it now more than ever.

“We want to say thank you to the SATSOL team for allowing us to get this done today.

“This is all about connectivity we’re trying to do for the people and collaboration between the two companies to make it happen,” he said.

He added, even though we’re talking about interconnection charges, that’s beside the point. But more importantly, we need to collaborate, work together with all the vendors, Telekom.

“This is one of those milestones that today we’re going to sign this interconnection agreement. Bemobile Solomon Islands is looking forward and needs to get this

done.”

SIBC News understands that the interconnection signed on Thursday is closely based on the interconnect agreement that Bmobile has had with Solomon Telekom Ltd (STCL) since 2018. 

It is a requirement of the Telecommunications Act to provide interconnection when requested because it promotes the interests of all users in the Solomon Islands.

SATSOL is a locally owned Telecommunications company providing a variety of services throughout the Solomon Islands.

As an Internet Service Provider, SATSOL currently provides approximately 20% of the country’s internet bandwidth. 

SATSOL owns and operates the highest teleport in Guadalcanal, overlooking the capital city of Honiara, and they have built the largest wireless ISP (WISP) network in the country.

[end]