Tuvalu - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Improved satellite infrastructure expected to make a vast difference in Tuvalu

Tuvalu has a very small population on a global scale, with less than 10,000 inhabitants on the remote and scattered group of nine inhabited coral atolls. Mobile subscriber penetration sits at around 40% in Tuvalu, compared to fixed broadband at only 10% penetration. Surprisingly, this fixed broadband penetration is comparatively quite high when compared to most other South Pacific nations.

Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation (TCC) is the government-owned and sole provider of telecommunication services. While it holds the monopoly in Tuvalu; in 2012 an amendment to the Telecommunications Act paved the way for government to license a second operator in the future.

TCC is working to improve telecoms services across Tuvalu which is heavily based on satellite technology. TCC has signed deals with Kacific Broadband Satellite which will see increases to high-speed bandwidth capacity over the next few years.

In addition, in 2015 Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and TTC announced they had signed a 5-year contract to improve capacity and offer higher speed Internet for schools, hospitals and banks as well increased IP backhaul capacity for the mobile network.

These developments will go a long way to improve the telecoms services for citizens of Tuvalu.