Synopsis
Consisting of 15 islands spread over 2.2 million sq kms, the Cook Islands suffers from the same enormous problems of distance and small population as do many other Pacific countries. All telecommunications services are provided by the monopoly operator, Telecom Cook Islands Ltd, which is majority-owned by Telecom New Zealand. Around 85% of households have fixed-line connections. A new GSM/GPRS digital mobile service was launched in Rarotonga, the main island, at the end of 2003. TCI launched a prepaid WiFi Internet service in September 2005 and a residential ADSL service on Rarotonga in April 2006. By 2008 TCI upgraded its core mobile network to allow the launch of new services such as integrated SMS, voice mail, GPRS and prepaid mobile. Please also note that this report is updated very infrequently due to limited availability of information on the local telecoms market.