Service Recommendations
The following are notes for companies and individuals who are planning to do business in the Solomon Islands using the Internet. They will describe our services and how you can take best advantage of them.
Services
Dial-up
Telekom provides a dial-up service to the Internet from all of our locations. This is obviously not broadband, but substantial effort has been made to ensure its best possible performance.
Dial-up calls are billed per minute to the telephone line they are made from and are priced the same nationwide. The rate is approximately SB$0.75 per minute. More detailed pricing can be obtained by contacting our Sales Office on +677 21164 or sales@telekom.com.sb.
iPass global-roaming connectivity is now available. Further information can be obtained at www.ipass.com
Prepaid dial-up which bills to a username rather than a telephone number is available now. Please see our Prepaid website for more information.
The Telekom end of a dial-up connection is capable of supporting connections up to 56kbps. However, real-world dial-up speeds are dependent on the distance of the telephone from the Exchange and the quality of the line.
Broadband
In Honiara, an ADSL "always on" Internet access service is available. Coverage is available from 4km East of the Airport to 4km West of Rove police station approximately.
Speeds of up to 2048/896kbps are available but most customers choose a 128/64kbps or 256/64kbps connection due to cost. Each plan includes a built-in traffic allowance. If you exceed your traffic allowance, you will incur excess usage charges for every additional Megabyte of data transferred.
Wireless Broadband is available in Gizo, Ringgi, Auki and surrounding areas.Prepaid broadband using WiFi is available in Honiara at several sites, Gizo, Auki, Noro and Munda. Gizo, Ringgi and Auki also have a prepaid wireless broadband option.
Business-to-Business links
Within Honiara we have the capability to link businesses at up to 800Kbps full duplex using our ADSL service. These services are offered at low cost and can be used to link Government Departments and business locations together. Pricing and availability can be determined by contacting our Sales Office on +677 21164 or sales@telekom.com.sb.
Technical considerations
Latency
All our connections go via satellite and latency is the main issue affecting Internet performance. Latency is a measure of the amount of time it takes to get a response to a request for information from the Internet. Round-trip times to Australia's Internet backbone are in the 600-800ms region. Times to Europe or USA are between 800 and 1200ms.
See "Satellite Internet" on the links below for more information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_latency_and_throughput
No matter what speed of connection you choose, there will always be a delay of some seconds before any response is received from the Internet. Once data begins to flow, it will do so at the speed your connection is rated to. This is particularly noticeable to people using a satellite-based Internet connection for the first time.
High latencies kill voice and video applications. Most of these applications are not written with high-latency connections in mind and whilst they work, do not function well. Due to their design, they cannot be made to function well. In order to get reliable (business-grade) voice or video throughput you will have to purchase specialist hardware or software and such hardware will still not be able to resolve all of the latency issues.
IP Addresses
At present each ADSL broadband connection is assigned one fixed/static IP address. Blocks of IP addresses cannot be assigned to broadband connections, so workarounds with port forwarding or host headers are required if you wish to host your own servers or devices.
Assignment of an IP address range to an ADSL connection is possible at special request.
Prepaid Broadband will be assigned a dynamic IP address.
Database Applications
Database applications are notoriously vulnerable to delays in communication. An application which works fine over a Local Area Network or over Internet in other parts of the world may not work at all if the client and server are on opposite ends of a satellite link.
It is absolutely essential that you check whether or not your database application is suited to operation over a satellite link. If it is not suited, the problem can be worked around using a Remote Desktop/Citrix environment on the server side, or by siting a server here in the Solomon Islands which replicates its information with an overseas master database. For further information as to the suitability of your application, please contact the Internet Helpdesk on helpdesk@telekom.com.sb or +677 24000.
VPN/Routers
Companies are encouraged to implement Wide Area Networks using their own VPN systems and routers, however VPN systems can increase the amount of traffic generated to transfer each chunk of data and add delays. A non-VPN based system (perhaps using Secure HTTP or an encrypted Remote-Desktop client) can be more reliable.
File Transfer
Many companies transfer files using email. Email is one of the least efficient ways to transfer data. Alternatives such as using FTP or HTTP-based transfers must be considered if a company plans to transfer sizeable files out of the country on a regular basis.
Committed Information Rates
We can provide Committed Information Rates to the Internet, which have no contention and no traffic limits. Please contact our Sales Office on +677 21164 or sales@telekom.com.sb for more information.Media
Telekom provides a mechanism for transferring very large files out of the country. The service is typically required by News and other Media. Please contact our Sales Office on +677 21164 or sales@telekom.com.sb for more information.
Business Considerations
Good practices
In better-connected parts of the world spurious traffic and inefficiencies on Internet connections can be ignored or eliminated by purchasing a faster connection.
Your Internet connection in the Solomon Islands will be relatively expensive, because it is operating over a satellite connection, and as such it is essential for you to get the most out of it. In order to do so you need to eliminate any unwanted traffic. This is best achieved by the following methods:
* Install a firewall which filters traffic in both directions. Outbound filtering is essential to control traffic from your LAN to the Internet; without it you can never tell what might be going on on your network.
* Supply Internet connectivity in your business only to those who require it.
* Consider a content-filtering application. Limit your staff to browsing what is required for the business.
* Watch all your applications. File-sharing programs such as Kazaa, eDonkey, BitTorrent, LimeWire and similar are hard to justify here. Software such as Skype which can become a "supernode" (generating massive extra traffic on your connection) should be carefully watched and disabled when not in use.
* Avoid streaming video and audio applications, at least be aware of their impact on your connection.
* Install a proxy/cache server. A local cache of information can save up to 50% of your bandwidth and increase the speed of Internet response by a factor of 10.
Environment
Due to power problems, lightning, humidity, dust, insects, reptiles, human and other factors the Solomon Islands is one of the hardest environments in which to keep equipment and services operating. The environmental issues are exacerbated by a lack of in-country skills in technical disciplines. Companies are encouraged to invest in good quality equipment and to ensure that the skills to support it are available locally.
Abuse
Businesses are advised to make sure that their Internet service is secured from unauthorised access and from abuse by members of staff within their company. Suitable access controls, policies and even "web content filters" are highly recommended. We recommend that you monitor your connection carefully; if you generate excess traffic, you will be charged for it. Also if traffic coming from your connection is severly compromising the service we provide to our other customers we may need to block your connection until you rectify the problem. We will always make best efforts to contact you in such a circumstance before taking such action.
Cost
Our services are (and will continue to be) expensive when compared to other countries due to the nature of the environment and because all our data is relayed via satellite. We work to provide reliable services which are sustainable in the Solomon Islands. Our business model is necessarily different to that of service providers who have large economies of scale and relatively cheap backbone connections to the Internet.
Updated Information
Please continue to check this website for any updates on our product range and services.