Services
Solomon Telekom currently provides post-paid Broadband services in Honiara, Gizo, Ringgi and Auki, and a special prepaid service in Gizo, Ringgi and Auki. Also, WiFi hotspots, using prepaid 'Bumblebee' cards, are located in Honiara, Auki, Gizo, Noro and Munda. Work is on progress for several other provincial townships as well.
In addition, dial-up is available everywhere with a telephone connection. All provincial townships where Telekom has a business centre, with the exception of Lata, have been upgraded with reliable, high speed dial-up services.
Type |
Locations |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Dialup |
Anywhere with a telephone |
Obviously not Broadband. Both prepaid and post-paid are available anywhere that has an existing telephone connection. |
Honiara (airport terminal buildings, most major hotels and selected other sites), Gizo (x3), Auki (x2), Noro, Munda |
Prepaid only, available in the immediate vicinity of the hotspot. |
|
Honiara |
Post-paid only. A wide variety of broadband packages are available. | |
Gizo, Ringgi, Auki |
Both prepaid and post-paid broadband packages are available. | |
Honiara, Gizo, Ringgi, Auki |
Committed Information Rate Internet Circuit - Post-paid only, available wirelessly (Gizo, Ringgi and Auki only) or via an existing telephone connection (Honiara, Gizo, Ringgi and Auki). |
Prepaid options
Telekom provides 'Bumblebee' prepaid cards for accessing our prepaid internet services anywhere in the country:
- Dialup 2 Hour - Provides a total of 2 hours of internet access via a dial up connection. You can disconnect at any time and use the remaining time later.
- Broadband 2 Hour/50 Megabyte and 7 Day/250 Megabyte - Provides broadband speed access (either via WiFi or Wireless Broadband) for up to the stated amount of time, or megabytes of traffic, whichever comes first. The time available is determined from when you first begin using the service.
WiFi
WiFi requires a wireless access card in your laptop. Most laptops built since mid 2005 have this as standard, look for references to WiFi or 802.11b/g in your laptop's documentation. WiFi signals have a very limited range and don't travel well through too many walls or other obstacles.
WiFi Hotspot
Telekom has an emergency hotspot available in Gizo that can be deployed to suit our customer's needs on request.
ADSL (Honiara Only)
ADSL requires an existing telephone connection. Telekom can provide the necessary ADSL modem for your broadband connection or you can source your own. Please follow this link for hardware recommendations.
Wireless Broadband (Gizo, Ringgi, Auki and surrounding areas Only)
The wireless broadband requires specialised equipment to be installed, and should not be confused with WiFi, however the two can be used together to provide a remote WiFi Hotspot. The wireless broadband equipment can be supplied as part of a post-paid contract or purchased outright for use in a prepaid arrangement. The equipment requires 240VAC and runs at approximately 20W. Coverage is reliable for Non-Line-Of-Sight up to about 4km from the Gizo Telekom Tower on top of Gizo hill or Ringgi Telekom Tower (near KFPL) or the Auki Telekom Tower and with Line-Of-Sight up to around 64km to a tower.
CIRIC (Committed Information Rate Internet Circuit)
This is a 'large pipe' to the Internet in whatever size is required. It can be used with no excess fees or traffic restrictions. This is an expensive option, with a minimum contract term of 1 year, it is also not quick to install. Installation is either via the above wireless equipment (Gizo, Ringgi, Auki only) or SHDSL (requiring a telephone line) depending on location.
In Honiara, if there is an existing telephone line, new services can be installed within one week. For Gizo, Ringgi and Auki installations may take longer if there are special transportation requirements.
Broadband Packages Available
Grade |
Down/Kbps |
Up/Kbps |
Traffic/GB |
Price/Month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Prepaid (Gizo, Ringgi and Auki Only) |
128 |
64 |
NA |
NA |
SOHO 128/64* |
128 |
64 |
1 |
$826.56 |
Business 128/64* |
128 |
64 |
3 |
$1,406.60 |
Business 256/64* |
256 |
64 |
6 |
$1,980.29 |
Business 512/128 |
512 |
128 |
12 |
$3,960.16 |
Cafe 256/64* |
256 |
64 |
15 |
$2,840.83 |
Cafe 512/128 |
512 |
128 |
30 |
$5,600.00 |
Cafe 2048/896 |
2048 |
896 |
135 |
$30,405.00 |
Education SOHO |
128 |
64 |
1 |
$551.25 |
Education 128/64 |
128 |
64 |
3 |
$937.22 |
Education 256/64 |
256 |
64 |
6 |
$1,320.06 |
Note: Excess Usage charges apply on all plans. Excess monthly data will be charged at SBD$0.37 per megabyte. All plans have a committed term of 12 months in Honiara, 24 months in Gizo, Ringgi and Auki. Customers in Honiara providing their own approved ADSL modem receive a SB$700.00 discount off the Installation Fee. * These service grades are available in Gizo and Ringgi |
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Installation Fees
An installation fee of SB$1779 applies to all ADSL installations where we provide a modem and SB$1079 where the customer supplies the modem.
See the Provinces page for Installation fees in Gizo, Ringgi and Auki.
Service Speeds
In order to make our broadband services affordable, Telekom follows the same practices used in most other parts of the world. Telekom shares a given chunk of data between multiple customers (we actually have less contention that most other broadband providers around the world). The shared chunk is divided equally between customers allocated to it, and we rely on the fact that the customers will never all use their portion at precisely the same moment to maintain acceptable levels of speed.
An analogy is a road system in town: It is too expensive to build a road big enough to carry all the cars at the same time. We rely on the fact that not everyone drives at the same time, and we accept that there will be peak times when the traffic goes more slowly.
In the same way, broadband services will slow down at peak times.
The graph below shows our typical usage from midnight on one day to midnight on the next. At peak times, services will be somewhat slower than they are during off-peak because more people are competing for the same data.
Our services are designed to provide varying qualities of service as well as different absolute speed and traffic limits. The quality of service is actually the main reason for the differences in price between services of the same speed.
What that all means is:
Business connections will get full speed more consistently than SOHO connections, especially during the business day.
Café Connections should experience no slowdowns at all due to high traffic from other customers.
We have specialised equipment which continuously monitors all services and adjusts bandwidth allocations accordingly.