In a world where digital connectivity is essential to opportunity, inclusion, and resilience, the Solomon Islands has long had to deal with a hard reality. With 75 percent of its 750,000 citizens living in remote or underserved areas spread across six major islands and over a thousand smaller ones, the island nation has had difficulty providing reliable mobile coverage. The partnership between Intelsat and Our Telekom is helping to change that.
At the heart of this partnership is a shared vision that geography should not be a barrier to progress. The nation’s primary mobile network operator, Our Telekom, partnered with Intelsat (now part of SES) to roll out 3G and 4G connectivity across the entire country. The team developed a cost-effective solution tailored for the island’s unique terrain by leveraging Intelsat’s managed capacity services. The project involved retrofitting remote sites to support high-speed data services, migrating from C-band to Ku-band, and installing a new satellite hub in Honiara.
Christina Lasaqa, CEO of Our Telekom highlighted the partnership’s transformative impact, “Intelsat is the perfect managed services partner for us. We are launching 4G mobile services to communities in the outer islands, bringing essential transformations from accessing mobile broadband and e-financial services to many other enterprise-grade applications. This is aligned with our objective to ensure all Solomon Islanders have access to fast internet service, even in remote locations.”
The partnership extends beyond infrastructure deployment with the two companies working together every step of the way. To make sure every site came online, Intelsat’s technical experts worked with local teams through difficult terrain, extreme weather, and logistical challenges. This partnership doesn’t end after implementation and includes ongoing training and remote support, empowering Our Telekom to scale and manage the network independently while preserving sovereignty by keeping all infrastructure and traffic inside the nation’s borders.
The results speak for themselves. In addition to paving the way for innovations like 5G, the expanded mobile network has significantly improved customer satisfaction and digital access. For the Solomon Islands, it marks a turning point in national resilience, digital inclusion and connectivity.
