Project Title:

Regional Broadband through WiFi hotspots colocated with rural GSM towers throughout the
Solomon Islands

Source of Proposal:

Solomon Telekom

Contact:

Keir Preedy - Solomon Telekom - Keir.preedy@telekom.com.sb

Brief Description
Providing cost effective broadband solutions for people in rural regional areas of the Solomon Islands
is a huge challenge. Dedicated facilities requiring VSAT backhaul are simply too expensive to be
economically viable and currently there is no government sponsored rural access fund to subsidise
this service.
Solomon Telekom currently operate 62 rural low capacity solar powered GSM base stations serving
regional areas based around villages and transport hubs. Currently a further 26 sites are in build
phase and they expect the final number to be 100 sites. Each of these sites uses an efficient VSAT
hub. Telekom also operate a WiFi hotspot commercial service currently in the larger towns.
The proposal is for Telekom to add a WiFi hotspot to these rural sites and operate it on incremental
satellite bandwidth and to offer a subsidised rural area broadband service aimed at low cost tablet
devices and laptops primarily, giving special attention to schools, health clinics, police and other
government, non-government, private sector services in the locale of the Base Station.

Beneficiary Countries
Solomon Islands

Project Objective(s)
1) Allow rural people access to the internet.
2) Provide subsidised devices in rural areas to support adoption.
3) Improve educational and health services in these areas by focussing on providing coverage to
their locations.
4) Support the development of local economies through improved communication facilities.

Expected Results
1) At least 3000 incremental active internet users in regional areas of the Solomon islands
2) Improved school and health clinic services through internet access
3) Improved tourism sector
4) Improved agriculture sector
5) Improved fisheries sector
6) Improved natural resources sector
7) Access for women in rural areas to services, market information, and other related content from
health sector and so on

Estimated Start Date

April 2014

Estimated Duration
24 months

Estimated Budget
USD 1,000,000

Main Activities
1) Identify optimum wifi solution for each site locale including village, school and clinic locations
2) Build 100 wifi hotspots and integrate into the existing Bumblebee system
3) Identify and purchase supply of 3000 tablets and laptop devices for initial service offering
4) Expand Bumblebee usage credit distribution points to each locale
5) Create subsidised airtime offering for regional areas and distribute to new distribution points
6) Launch and operate the service