Telecom Vanuatu Ltd.

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Telecom Vanuatu Ltd. was formed based on the combined assets of the national operator National Telecom Vanuatu Limited (NTVL) and the international operator Vanitel Limited in 1992. The company was awarded an exclusive license to provide local and long distance phone services until 2012. The company started its operations in December 1992. At its creation and as of 2005, Telecom Vanuatu Ltd. was a company equally owned by Government of Vanuatu (33.3%), Cable and Wireless Plc. (33.3%), and France Cables et Radio (33.3%). International services were provided using a 13-metre satellite earth station antenna situated in the capital, Port Vila, working with the INTELSAT 174E satellite. Direct circuits were established with Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, France and Fiji. Worldwide access was available by switching at the terminations of the direct circuits. The circuits with Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, France and Fiji were all digital (IDR). Telecom Vanuatu Limited was engaged in an extensive rural development program to replace the old RSS analogue network with an IRT 2000 digital network. This new network covered all the main islands in Vanuatu and provided high quality digital national and international communications from the islands. VHF and HF systems was used for areas which were not easily accessible by the IRT 2000. In February 1994 commercial operation of a mobile telephone network (AMPS 800) started in Port Vila. Coverage was limited to Port Vila only by 1997, but was to be extended in the future depending on demand. TVL was equpped with an ALCATEL (E10B) telephone exchange, completely digitalized, with a 9,000 line capacity located in Port Vila. A remote division with a 2,000 line capacity (CSN) was installed in Luganville, on the island of Santo. In April 2002, the company launched its GSM mobile telephony network under the Smile brand name. Since then, the GSM network had been operating in Port-Vila, Luganville (Santo isl.) and Norsup (Malekula isl.). As of 2003, there had been more than threefold growth in the number of mobile subscribers since the introduction of the GSM network. Email sent to telecom@tvl.net.vu on 8/10/03 www.tvl.net.vu Since 1990, TVL has invested over 3 billion Vatu ($21.1 million) to upgrade telecommunications network, now nearly fully digitalised.