Whose Family First? SamoaTel in the Spotlight!

Concerned citizens form CCATS
In response to the multiple inadequacies and unresponsiveness to public concerns of one of the country’s most important service providers – SamoaTel – a group of concerned citizens has formed a support group to raise awareness of the issues. Citizens’ Coalition for Accountability in Telecommunications in Samoa (CCATS) begins its campaign by analyzing one example of SamoaTel’s public rhetoric.

Prototype Rhetoric Riddled with Holes...
Let us start with a recent, short interview of SamoaTel's CEO, Mr. Michael Johnstone that appeared in Samoa Observer on July 2 2005 and demonstrate the frivolous statements and claims made in this seemingly sparkling work of public relations. This should serve us as a gateway into other areas of our comprehensive discussion in the months ahead. First the full article below followed by our point-by-point comments and critical analyses of subtleties involved:

SamoaTel brings telephone boosters
By Alan Ah Mu 02 July 2005

SamoaTel is close to realising its goal of extending its telephone network to cover 95 percent of the country. "Very close," an excited Chief executive officer Michael Johnstone said. Inaccessible "pockets" in the country, however, require SamoaTel to come up with different solutions. For example, Mr Johnstone said an area located at the bottom of a hill, could make it impossible for a telephone to function. He refers to those as "marginal signal areas." "And we're starting to focus on those," he was quick to point out. In Upolu, such an area is Aleisa. Mr Johnstone said this is an area that has been crying out for telephones for years. "Aleisa you will have them," (said) promised Mr Johnstone. "We have an option coming up for that." He displayed a booster unit, which is mounted on the wall and would make telephone calls possible in Aleisa. "It's like a stereo amplifier," he explained. Another option for a difficult area, he said, is called a wireless local loop telephone. It's a telephone with an antennae attached to it, with a booster inside. "These are all the plans we are working on," Mr Johnstone said.

We take in account the brief nature of the interview and the subsequent exclusion of details but the flight of fancy here is too staggering as not to respond adequately.

Skewed Statistics:
Setting aside the vital issue of the time frame for now, what is the basis of the stated goal 95 percent "telephone network coverage" and what does it really refer to? The internationally accepted yardstick for telephone network coverage in a country according to FCC (Federal Communication Comission) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is Teledensity which is defined as the number of landline telephones in use for every 100 individuals living within an area. The teledensity for Samoa according to ITU statistics of 2003 (our latest) is 6.41 which translates to 6.41% of Samoan population having a telephone line. This percentage has not drastically changed in recent years. Let's say that SamoaTel, in good faith (but inconsistent with accepted reporting practices) multiplied this number by 8 which is the average household size in Samoa according to the latest census statistics of 2001. This would give 51% coverage – nowhere near 95%! Or perhaps, against all conventions of reporting practices, the 95% network coverage refers to geographic coverage, in which case we cannot fathom such high percentage coverage considering the low teledensity and coastal clustering of Samoan population. Perchance, one might arrive at such a number (which looks really tantalising!) by lumping all the so-called “wireless local loop”, radio phones, mobile and pay phone access and referring to their potentialities to cover 95% of Samoa - again misleading statistics. Why does SamoaTel twist simple facts in such a drastic way - we ask?

“Inaccessible” – by what?
Which part of Samoa is really inaccessible - by what and by whom? Samoa is a relatively small country of less than 3,000 square kilometers and the two main islands are relatively close to each other. Samoa boats a topography and clusters of population so ideal for implementing telecommunications infrastructures that is almost the subject of envy for any network engineer elsewhere. With a 100% network digitisation and an extensive state-of-the-art fiber optic cable around both islands and across Upolu, Samoa’s telecommunications infrastructure is much ahead of its current international classification as an LDC (Least Developed Country). Many communities alongside and close to the cable back-bone enjoy the benefit of landline telephone for voice and data (fax/internet) communication - albeit via a small number of telephone installations. From this main fibre-optic line, connections can be extended to service communities further away. With the small distances, good road network and easy topography, these areas are certainly not inaccessible by ordinary landline – there is no technical barrier to SamoaTel extending its landline network for the “plain old telephone system” (POTS). In the case of Aleisa, the area mentioned in the article, an extension of only a few miles would be required. Later articles will examine the financial viability of such an investment for SamoaTel.

“Wireless Local Loop” a.k.a. HomeZone
The so-called “Wireless Local Loop” a.k.a. HomeZone is simply a GSM mobile (voice only) network. Because of a ten-year no-compete agreement with Telecom Samoa Cellular, SamoaTel cannot market this as a mobile service – thus the disguise as “Wireless Local Loop” (which is entirely a different concept by definition) and branding as HomeZone. This system is used in some parts of the country not reached by the landline telephone network, to provide a voice-only telephone service which has its own billing system and structure, different from the ordinary (PSTN) system.

By mentioning so-called “inaccessible pockets”, the above mentioned article is obviously making a reference to the Wireless Local Loop network and the fact that the HomeZone service does not work in some areas. The reason for this is that there are not enough towers to provide adequate coverage (to be exact, there is only one tower!) – not because of any inherent difficulties of the areas concerned. The so-called “boosters” (which are not boosters at all but mere Fixed GSM Cellular Terminals), acquired by SamoaTel at high cost, and provided to a very small number of people may have improved their signal reception, but have not overcome the multitude of other problems associated with this product (more on these in a future article). Given the difficulties providing service to such areas via “Wireless Local Loop” technology, the obvious question is: why not extend the landline? Is it perhaps because of a short-sighted economical equation by SamoaTel to keep the captive and desperate audience in these "inaccessible pockets on the bottom of the hill" in order to have a large and instant customer base when the new GSM network rolls out next year? Clearly neither of these services is an adequate substitute for true landline service with fax and internet capability in addition to voice, and at equal rates as the rest of the country. What is good for Apia shall be good for Falealupo too, the classic motto and vision of the Government.

Aleisa – so close, and yet so far
It is no accident that Aleisa was mentioned in the above article. It appeared a few days after Mr. Johnstone received a letter from an Aleisa resident as a matter requesting to meet and discuss the status of landline telephone services to Aleisa while outlining in great detail the multitudes of service and billing problems of the HomeZone product. While the meeting followed a week later, and repeated by another Aleisa resident shortly after, no results were achieved nor were any problems fixed – the only outcome being a clear answer that there were no plans to bring landline telephone services to Aleisa.

A highly populated and developed area, Aleisa is home to mostly private land/home-owners comprised of professionals, entrepreneurs, farmers, and many businesses. The most recent national census indicates that Aleisa's population is over 1,200 with a conservative estimate of at least 3,000 people living in the surrounding area between Tanumapua and Faleasi'u-uta (this does not include villages on the other side towards Lefaga, such as Tanumalala). There are also two sizable subdivisions in Aleisa. This region, North-West Upolu, is the fastest-growing in Samoa. Aleisa residents have persistently petitioned SamoaTel for landline telephone services for the past 8 years (with over 200 names on the most recent list submitted), to no avail.

Too expensive?
SamoaTel staff at all levels are quick to point out how expensive it is to extend telephone lines. This may seem reasonable until you realize that we are not in outback Australia. Only a 10-15 minute drive from Apia, with a number of tar-sealed roads to the coast, Aleisa is only 4.7 miles away from the main fiber optics cable (DSS). Extending only two 100-pair copper cables would provide for over one thousand telephone lines at relatively low cost. And doesn’t it seem likely that an area full of business-people crying out for landline telephone service for voice, facsimile and email communication would generate some healthy revenue for SamoaTel, and maybe even make it worthwhile to invest in the line extension? And in the event that it took some time to turn a profit – isn’t that what Community Service Obligation funding is for?

All of these questions are difficult, but the public should not be fobbed off with easy answers, e.g. high roll-out cost, technical impossibility, SamoaTel not eligible for CSO, etc., and now the latest, official puny excuse of the low number of applications for phone received from Aleisa residents. With a petition of over 200 residents in Aleisa for landline telephone service one can hardly speak of low turnout! In later articles we will expound on the application process, past and present, and the fact that the number of applicants has not been shown to be a trigger for extending landline phone services to an area. (How many normal people would go through the difficult process of lodging an official application when they know very well that there is no service in their area?)
The fact remains that requests to initiate a feasibility, revenue and cost analysis study for bringing landline services to Aleisa have fallen on deaf ears and repeated follow-up letters have remained unanswered by SamoaTel. So, what is the basis of all these excuses?

CCATS conclusions
Amazing how a very short and seemingly jolly article can contain so much misinformation. We started our public awareness campaign by analysing this short article to stress upon the public that an acute sense of critical thinking is in order when dealing with SamoaTel - this applies to their public relations campaigns, their media advertising, new services or technology hypes, and as we shall see in the weeks and months to come, their billing inconsistencies, service provisioning and a host of other issues.

In the meantime, we encourage you to visit our website (www.CCATSamoa.info), launched this weekend which should serve as a repository of published articles and a chance to voice your concerns or share your experiences - or perhaps you have some kind words to convince SamoaTel to help and provide the Aleisa area and other disadvantaged areas with equal level of service.

About Us
Citizens’ Coalition for Accountability in Telecommunications in Samoa (CCATS) is a non-partisan coalition of concerned Samoans. What we intend to accomplish is to provide public awareness on all the issues that adversely affect Samoans relating to telecommunications services provided by SamoaTel. We do so, in good faith and with the understanding that Samoa deserves better and with a deep conviction that an informed society is a better place to thrive and flourish. We base our observations and findings on verifiable facts and attempt to layout our arguments to the public at large and to those in decision making positions with restrained logic, factual data and common sense. For the sake of brevity and for the purpose of reaching a broad base of readers we attempt to keep the technical jargon to a minimum. The public awareness campaign we are launching using all available media, commencing with this article, will continue as long as SamoaTel's inadequacies persist. While we like to assume representation of the spectrum of the concerned community at large, an expert team amidst us, comprised of international consultants in areas of telecommunications, management, finance and policy making is ready to take actions to higher levels. It is our ardent hope and aspiration that this campaign triggers SamoaTel to rectify its multitudes of problems for its own sake but most importantly for the benefit of Samoa as whole.