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Communications in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

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Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Their communications provision includes dedicated radio and television stations, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Much of the preceding telecommunications infrastructure between Saint Helena and Ascension was laid in 1899 by the Eastern Telegraph Company, later Cable & Wireless plc and Sure South Atlantic, as part of the British need to track the Second Boer War.[1][2][3]

Saint Helena

[edit]

Communications services in St Helena are provided by Sure South Atlantic (Sure SA), providing landline (POTS), mobile (2G/4G), internet (ADSL2), television (DVB-T2) and international connectivity.[4] They have an exclusive license from the St Helena Government to operate the aforementioned services, with the current licence running to 1 July 2025. All of St Helena's international connectivity was by satellite until the activation of the Equiano submarine cable in October 2023.[5] New telecoms legislation and new license terms are being drafted by the government, with the arrival of subsea cable access.[6] Cable and Wireless was the license holder from 1989 to 2013. Prior to 1989 telecoms were operated by the government.

There are three radio stations broadcasting in St Helena as of 2023 and two weekly newspapers, The Sentinel and the St Helena Independent.

Telecom services in St Helena are comparatively expensive, for example, all TV channels are encrypted and a subscription costs amount to more than one tenth of an average worker's salary.[7][8]

Radio

[edit]

There are three radio stations in St Helena as of 2023, all broadcasting on FM. All are also available on internet radio.

South Atlantic Media Services (SAMS),[9] supported by the St Helena Government, broadcasts two FM stations: SAMS Radio 1, providing locally produced news, talk and music programming; SAMS also rebroadcasts the BBC World Service.[10] SAMS also produces a weekly newspaper, The Sentinel.

Saint FM Community Radio broadcasts on FM. The station is legally a company registered by guarantee and is owned by its members; Anyone who wishes to can become a member. The station's sister newspaper is the St Helena Independent.[11][12]

Previously, Radio St Helena, which started operations on Christmas Day 1967, provided a local radio service that had a range of about 60 miles (100 km) from the island, and also broadcast internationally on Shortwave Radio (11092.5 kHz) on one day a year. The station presented news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Herald. It closed on 25 December 2012 to make way for a new three-channel FM service, also funded by St. Helena Government and run by the South Atlantic Media Services (formerly St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation).[13] Saint FM,[14] the precursor of Saint FM community radio, was launched in January 2005 and closed on 21 December 2012. It was relayed in Ascension Island and was not government funded. It broadcast news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Independent (which continues). As of 1997, there were 3,000 radios in the area.

Occasional amateur radio operations also occur on the island. The ITU prefix used is ZD7.[15]

Television

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Sure SA offers television for the island via 17 digital encrypted DVB-T2 channels, which rebroadcast a compilation of British and South African programmes provided by MultiChoice.[16] The feed signal from MultiChoice DStv in South Africa is received by a satellite dish at Bryant's Beacon from Intelsat 20 and Intelsat 36 in the Ku band.[17]

Television services first arrived in 1995 using 3 analogue encrypted TV channels, rebroadcasting a variety of foreign content from satellite.[18][19] The current digital broadcasting network using the DVB-T2 standard was installed on the island in late 2011, replacing the old analogue system.[20] The feed signal is received by a satellite dish at Bryant's Beacon.[21] A local television channel was in operation from 2015 to 2017 by SAMS, consisting of a weekly news bulletin. [19] As of 1997, there were 2,000 television sets in the territory.

Telecommunications

[edit]

Sure South Atlantic Ltd provide the telecommunications service in the territory. They provide landline (POTS), mobile (2G/4G), internet (ADSL2), television (DVB-T2) and international connectivity.[4] They have an exclusive license from the St Helena Government to operate the aforementioned services, with the current licence running to 1 July 2025. All of St Helena's international connectivity was by satellite until the activation of the Equiano submarine cable in October 2023.[5] Sure SA operate an on island fibre backbone connecting most exchanges, cell sites and important institutions, with microwave links providing access to some areas. The access network is entirely based on copper, besides some important institutions.

The St Helena has contracted Maestro Technologies to build and deploy a full-fibre access network to the island, with fixed wireless access serving the most remote places. The network was originally intended to be completed by the end of 2023,[22] however has been delayed to an unknown date. Preparatory works have begun, however the main deployment has not.[23]

History

[edit]

The island was first connected by a subsea telegraph cable in 1899 to Ascension Island and South Africa, forming part of the All Red Line. The government took over the telephone system in 1953. A radiotelephone link is established to Ascension Island in 1957, and in 1967 to South Africa. An automatic telephone exchange was installed in 1983. A satellite ground station with a 7.6-metre satellite dish installed in 1989 at The Briars, coinciding with Cable & Wireless taking over operation of the telephone network. This allowed international direct dial services for the first time.[24] In 1999 the first local dial-up service was introduced, followed by ADSL service in 2007. The first fiber-optic link was installed on the island in August 2011, gradually expanding the backbone to most areas of the island by 2020.[25] Mobile telephony was first introduced in 2015 using a mix of 2G and 4G technology.[26] The island was subject to sun outages at certain times of year, as a result of satellite only access.[27]

St Helena's first submarine fibre cable, Google's Equiano cable, was landed in 2021 and became active in 2023.

Telephone service

[edit]

As of 2009 there were 2,900 main telephone lines in use on St Helena. Since 2006 it shares its international calling code +290 with Tristan da Cunha. Since October 2013 telephone numbers are 5 digits long. Numbers start with 1–9, with 8xxxx being reserved for Tristan da Cunha numbers and 22xxx for Jamestown.[28]

Further information: Telephone numbers in Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha

Mobile service

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A 2G/4G mobile telephone network is provided by Sure SA and reaches 98% of the population.

Mobile service was first launched in September 2015, following an agreement signed between the St Helena Government and Cable & Wireless South Atlantic (now Sure South Atlantic Ltd) in July 2012. [29]A GSM/3G network was originally planned.[29] Installation began in April 2014,[30] however the contracted network equipment supplier, Altobridge, went into receivership, the procurement process had to be restarted, postponing the launch date.[31] The deployed network, after the second procurement, added 4G connectivity and is based on network equipment from Canadian Star Solutions International Inc. providing GSM-900 and LTE band 3 (1800 MHz) and Primal Technologies providing Advance Pay/Prepaid, SMSC, Voicemail, USSD, IVR, CTS service.[32][33] The cellular network uses the MCC/MNC tuple 658–01.[34][35]

Internet

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ADSL2+ broadband internet service is provided by Sure SA. Speeds between 5 and 20 Mbit/s are offered, with lower tiers having data caps of 30-60 GB; higher tiers are uncapped. There are few public Wi-Fi hotspots in Jamestown, which are also operated by Sure South Atlantic Ltd.[36] As of 2023, the island is connected by the Google Equiano submarine cable, with a lit bandwidth of 100 Gbit to Portugal, and 10 Gbit/s of internet capacity. There are plans to deploy an island-wide full-fibre access network to better utilise the submarine capacity. [22]

Until 2023, St Helena's international access was via satellite link. Internet and telecom services on the island were severely restriced and expensive, with the top-tier internet plan costing £160 with a data cap of 31 GB and a speed of 2 Mbit/s. In 2018, the entire island shared an estimated 50 Mbit/s of bandwidth, with latency reported up to 600-700ms.[37] Diane Selkirk of The Independent wrote that "internet is slow and costly enough that only the most dedicated teenager keeps up on celebrity gossip."[38]

As of 2021, the territory had 1068 internet users; there were 6,873 internet hosts as of 2010.

[edit]

As of 2023, St Helena has a single submarine cable connection, the Google Equiano cable. The cable was landed in 2021 and services over the cable were activated in October 2023. Prior to the cable St Helena's international access was only by satellite. Latency reduced from 657ms to 131ms after the activation of the cable, as well as providing bandwidth capacity orders of magnitude higher than before.[39]

Since 2012 a campaign called Move This Cable – Connect St Helena! lobbied for submarine cable access. Specifically they lobbied for branch of the planned South Atlantic Express (SAEx) submarine cable to land on St Helena.[40][41][42] On 27 October 2017 the St Helena Government announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with SAEx to provide a branching spur to St Helena from the South Atlantic Express submarine cable between South Africa and South America. However the SAEx project never came to fruition.[43]

In July 2019, the St Helena Government obtained funding from the European Development Fund and issued a letter of intent to Google to connect St Helena through a 1140 km long branch from the company's Equiano submarine cable.[44] The cable was landed in St Helena in 2021 and services became active in October 2023.

Satellite Earth station

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As of 2023, OneWeb is currently constructing a satellite earth station at Deadwood Plain, to support operations over the South Atlantic Ocean using capacity from the newly inaugurated submarine cable.

The St Helena Government hopes to attract operators of satellite ground stations to the island who would lease capacity on the planned submarine cable for backhauling and so contribute to the operational costs of the latter, with a project launched in February 2018 seeing to this purpose.[45] Satellite ground stations on St Helena could support communications with satellites in low Earth orbit, including those in polar, equatorial and inclined orbit and with high-throughput satellites in medium Earth as well as Geostationary orbit.[46]

Ascension

[edit]

Telecommunications

[edit]

Sure SA provides all telecom services in Ascension Island, including telephone, internet and mobile services. The island does not have submarine connectivity. As of 2023, ADSL services are available with a maximum speed of 1.5 Mbit/s with a 14 GB data cap.[47]

Since 2012 Ascension has a cellular network based on the GSM standard which covers Georgetown, Wideawake Airfield, Travellers Hill and Two Boats Village. Initially, services were not marketed locally but instead only offered to visitors using their home operators' international roaming service.[48][49] Local 2G and 4G services were launched in 2016.[50]

Separately, Ascension hosts British, European and US communications equipment for satellites, telescopes, spacecraft tracking and signals intelligence, and was historically an important mid-atlantic communications hub.

Tristan da Cunha

[edit]

Telecommunication

[edit]

The island is linked internationally through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Telecommunications Network.[51] All homes in Tristan have landline telephones. [52] BFBS and radio are retransmitted on the island. Internet access has been available since 1998, accessible in schools, government offices and through a public internet cafe opened in 2006.[53] The connection was initially extremely unreliable, connecting through a 64 kbit/s satellite phone connection provided by Inmarsat. In 2006, a larger satellite dish was installed and provided 3072 kbit/s of bandwidth.[54] In 2013, the connection was upgraded[55] and again in 2020, it was reported that the island's internet was able to support a video call.[56] After the 2019 storm, it was reported a municipal wifi network was being deployed for residents by Vodafone.[57]

A Starlink connection was activated on the island in September 2024.[58]

As of 2023, there is not yet any mobile telephone coverage on the islands.[59]

Although Tristan da Cunha has an allocated telephone numbering range of +290 8xxxx, shared with St Helena, telephones in Tristan da Cunha use a London 020 numbering range, meaning that numbers are accessed via the UK telephone numbering plan.

Amateur radio

[edit]

Amateur radio operator groups sometimes conduct DX-peditions on the island. One group operated as station ZD9ZS in September–October 2014.[60][61][62]

Meteorological stations

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South Africa maintains a staffed meteorological station on Gough Island; on Saint Helena island, there is an automatic weather station at Longwood and another station at Broad Bottom. Ascension Island has four meteorological stations: in the Airhead, Georgetown, Travellers and Residency.[63]

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Ascension History". mysterra.org. Mysterra Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. ^ Neal Stephenson (December 1996). "Mother Earth Mother Board". Wired. Vol. 4, no. 12. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  3. ^ Burns, Bill (22 July 2018). "1899 St Helena-Cape Town Cable". Atlantic-Cable.com. FTL Design. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Welcome to Sure Saint Helena, Sure". Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b Government, St Helena (1 September 2023). "St Helena connects to the Subsea Cable". St Helena Government. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  6. ^ "St. Helena's New Undersea Cable Will Deliver 18 Gbps Per Person". 4 January 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  7. ^ Hancock, Simon (19 January 2010). "Life on one of the world's most remote islands". news article. BBS News. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  8. ^ O'Bey, Hensil (24 April 2012). "Digital Terrestrial Television Project Update". press release. Cable & Wireless South Atlantic Ltd. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  9. ^ "SAMS Home". sams.sh. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  10. ^ "BROADCAST STATIONS". Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Saint FM". Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  12. ^ "Saint Helena Stations". Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  13. ^ Pipe, Simon (14 June 2012). "Media saga takes new twist as Mike plans more radio stations". St. Helena Online. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  14. ^ "Saint FM Homepage". Saint FM. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  15. ^ "Saint Helena Island Info: All about St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean • Amateur ("Ham") Radio". sainthelenaisland.info. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  16. ^ Sure South Atlantic Ltd., Digital Television Service – General Terms and Conditions, No. 7
  17. ^ "Public Information on the Television Delivery on the KU-BAND" (PDF). Cable and Wireless. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  18. ^ O'Bey, Hensil (23 March 2012). "Digital Terrestrial Television Project update" (PDF). press release. Cable & Wireless South Atlantic Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  19. ^ a b Henry, Sharon (29 March 2012). "15 Channel Digital TV for St Helena" (PDF). news article. The St Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  20. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), The St Helena Independent Volume VI, Issue 49, Friday 21 October 2011, p. 3
  21. ^ . 30 June 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100630165546/http://www.cwi.sh/downloads/PubInfoTV.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2018. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ a b Government, St Helena (30 November 2022). "Contract Awarded in Telecoms Procurement". St Helena Government. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  23. ^ Government, St Helena (1 September 2023). "St Helena connects to the Subsea Cable". St Helena Government. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  24. ^ "Cable & Wireless Carries out Major Mechanical Maintenance" Archived 10 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine The St Helena Independent Volume 1, Issue 37 Friday 21 July 2006, p. 8
  25. ^ "Cable & Wireless SA Ltd First Fibre Network for St Helena"[permanent dead link] St Helena Herald, Volume XI no. 15, 5 August 2011, p. 27
  26. ^ "Communications ⋅ Saint Helena Island Info ⋅ About St Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean". sainthelenaisland.info. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  27. ^ "AI Artists - William McGlaughlin Reviews". Archived from the original on 21 October 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2012./www.cwi.sh/our_network.html/
  28. ^ World Telephone Numbering Guide Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha
  29. ^ a b "SHG and Cable & Wireless South Atlantic sign new deal". press release. St Helena Government. 23 July 2012. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  30. ^ Henry, Sharon (24 April 2014). "They're finally here – Cellphones for Christmas" (PDF). The Sentinel. Vol. 3, no. 5. Jamestown: South Atlantic Media Services, Ltd. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  31. ^ "No Sure thing: cellco forced to delay mobile launch after supplier folds". TeleGeography. PriMetrica, Inc. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  32. ^ "Batelco selects Star for GSM/LTE rollout". TeleGeography. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  33. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Sure South Atlantic Ltd. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  34. ^ Graham, August (3 September 2015). "On The Grid – SAMS Gets First Official Mobile Call". South Atlantic Media Services Ltd. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  35. ^ "ITU Operational Bulletin No. 1078". ITU. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  36. ^ "WiFi". 30 June 2010. Archived from the original on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  37. ^ Werner, Debra (14 March 2018). "St. Helena looks to unlikely patron to pay its subsea cable bill: the satellite industry". SpaceNews. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  38. ^ Selkirk, Diane (13 October 2017). "St Helena finally opens 'the world's most useless airport'". The Independent. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  39. ^ "Saint Helena activates long awaited submarine cable connection". Kentik. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  40. ^ Ropp, Christian von der. "Connect St Helena!". Connect St Helena!. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  41. ^ Lee, Dave (3 January 2013). "Island community St Helena renews plea for internet cash from UK". bbc.com. BBC. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  42. ^ Geere, Duncan (22 February 2012). "Wiring up St Helena: the campaign to connect a remote Atlantic island". WIRED.co.uk. Condé Nast UK. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  43. ^ "SHG SIGNS MOU WITH SAEX TO DELIVER SUBMARINE CABLE PROJECT". St Helena. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  44. ^ "Subsea cable to be landed on St Helena". St Helena. 19 July 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  45. ^ "St Helena South Atlantic Earth Station Project". article. St Helena Government. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  46. ^ "St Helena South Atlantic Earth Station Project". website. St Helena Government. 5 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  47. ^ "Broadband Price Plans | Sure Ascension Island". www.sure.co.ac. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  48. ^ Roaming Mobile Service
  49. ^ Cohen, Brian (15 January 2013). "FlyerTalk Members Report on Experience of Emergency Airplane Diversion to Ascension Island". Flyertalk.com. Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  50. ^ "Sure South Atlantic (Ascension Island)". 21 February 2016. Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  51. ^ "Global Crossing extends FCO network to Tristan da Cunha". Telecom Paper. 22 May 2006. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  52. ^ "Tristan Da Cunha Contact Information". Archived from the original on 16 June 2013.
  53. ^ "Telecommunications expert sets the record straight: Internet access is too expensive for Tristan da Cunha". Tristan da Cunha News. 11 August 2005. Archived from the original on 4 December 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
  54. ^ "Tristan da Cunha communications news". Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  55. ^ Grundy, Richard. "Tristan da Cunha St Mary's School News 2014". www.tristandc.com. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  56. ^ Grundy, Richard. "Face to Face meeting between Tristan and UK". www.tristandc.com. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  57. ^ Grundy, Richard. "Update on storm damage repairs, 16th October 2019". www.tristandc.com. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  58. ^ "Tristan web-access Starlink update". Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association.
  59. ^ "Tristan da Cunha's Development and Public Works". Tristan da Cunha Government & Tristan da Cunha Association. 6 October 2016. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  60. ^ "ZD9ZS Tristan da Cunha Island". DX News. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  61. ^ "ZD9ZS – Tristan da Cunha". DX-World. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  62. ^ "ZD9XF-ZD9ZS Sep 2014: Tristan da Cunha". G3TXF. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  63. ^ "Hash Trash – Hash No: 1363 – Ascension Island News". Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.

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