Communications in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

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Below is a summary of media communications in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

Contents

Saint Helena [edit]

Radio [edit]

Radio St Helena, which started operations on Christmas Day 1967, provided a local radio service that had a range of about 100 km from the island, and also broadcast internationally on Shortwave Radio (11092.5 kHz) on one day a year. The station presented news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Herald. It closed on 25 December 2012 to make way for a new three-channel FM service, also funded by St. Helena Government and run by the South Atlantic Media Services (formerly St. Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation).[1]

Saint FM[2] provided a local radio service for the island which was also available on internet radio[3] and relayed in Ascension Island. The station was not government funded. It was launched in January 2005 and closed on 21 December 2012. It broadcast news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Independent (which continues).

Saint FM Community Radio took over the radio channels vacated by Saint FM and launched on 10 March 2013. The station is legally a company registered by guarantee and is owned by its members. Anyone who wishes to can become a member.

As of 1997, there were 3,000 radios in the area.

Television [edit]

Cable & Wireless offers television for the island via three encrypted analogue terrestrial UHF channels, which rebroadcast a compilation of English programmes provided by Multichoice (South Africa), at a monthly subscription rate of £26.99.[4] The feed signal is received by a satellite dish at Bryant's Beacon from Intelsat 7 in the Ku band.[5] Since October 2011 digital broadcasting equipment according to the DVB-T2 standard is being installed on the island,[6] which will enable broadcasting of 15 uninterrupted TV channels.[7] All TV channels will be encrypted and subscription costs are estimated at between £33 and £35 per month (excl. SHG Service Tax),[8] more than one tenth of an average worker's salary.[9] Two separate local TV channels will be allocated to carry local content.[4] As of 1997, there were 2,000 television sets in the territory.

Telecommunications [edit]

Cable & Wireless South Atlantic Ltd provide the telecommunications service in the territory through a digital copper-based telephone network including ADSL-broadband service. In August 2011 the first fiber-optic link has been installed on the island, which connects the television receive antennas at Bryant's Beacon to the Cable & Wireless Technical Centre in the Briars. Plans are now being made for further fibre optic cable installations.[10]

A satellite ground station with a 7.6 metre satellite dish installed in 1989[11] at The Briars is the only international connection providing satellite links through Intelsat 707 to Ascension island and the United Kingdom.[12] Since all international telephone and internet communications are relying on this single satellite link both internet and telephone service are subject to sun outages.

A campaign called Move This Cable - Connect St Helena! currently lobbies for the South Atlantic Express submarine communications cable to land at the remote island of St Helena and to provide broadband internet access to the island's small population of 4,000 people.[13]

Saint Helena has the international calling code +290 which, since 2006, Tristan da Cunha shares. Telephone numbers are 4 digits long. Numbers start with 1-9, with 8xxx being reserved for Tristan da Cunha numbers and 2xxx for Jamestown.[14]

As of 2009 there were 2,900 main telephone lines in use.

Currently there is no cellular network installed in St Helena. Following an agreement signed between the St Helena Government and Cable & Wireless South Atlantic in July 2012 a GSM cellphone network will be rolled out on St Helena by 2014. The network will cover 95% of the population. Services will include voice calls, text messaging, mobile data and inbound and outbound roaming.[15]

Internet [edit]

Saint Helena has a 10/3.6 Mbit/s[12] internet link via Intelsat 707 provided by Cable & Wireless International UK. In July 2012 Cable & Wireless South Atlantic announced bandwidth to be doubled to 20 MBit/s.[15] For a population of more than 4000 bandwidth - even after the upgrade of July 2012 - is considered being inadequate.

ADSL-broadband service is provided with maximum speeds of up to 384 kbit/s downstream and 128 kbit/s upstream offered on contract levels from lite £20 per month to gold at £120 per month.[16] There are few public Wi-Fi hotspots in Jamestown, which are also being operated by Cable & Wireless.[17]

As of 2009, the territory had 900 internet users; there were 6,873 internet hosts as of 2010, and one ISP.

Meteorological stations [edit]

South Africa maintains a manned meteorological station on Gough Island; on Saint Helena island, there is an automatic weather station at Longwood and another station at Broad Bottom.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Simon Pipe (2012-06-14). "Media saga takes new twist as Mike plans more radio stations". St. Helena Online. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
  2. ^ "Saint FM Homepage". Saint FM. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
  3. ^ "Saint FM Live Stream". Saint FM. Retrieved 21 July 2012. 
  4. ^ a b Sharon Henry (29 March 2012). "15 Channel Digital TV for St Helena". news article. The St Helena Broadcasting (Guarantee) Corporation Ltd. Retrieved 6 August 2012. 
  5. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100630165546/http://www.cwi.sh/downloads/PubInfoTV.pdf
  6. ^ "Digital Terrestrial Television Project progresses for C&W SA Ltd", The St Helena Independent Volume VI, Issue 49, Friday 21 October 2011, p. 3
  7. ^ Hensil O'Bey (23 March 2012). "Digital Terrestrial Television Project update". press release. Cable & Wireless South Atlantic Ltd. Retrieved 5 August 2012. 
  8. ^ Hensil O'Bey (24 April 2012). "Digital Terrestrial Television Project Update". press release. Cable & Wireless South Atlantic Ltd. Retrieved 5 August 2012. 
  9. ^ Simon Hancock (19 January 2010). "Life on one of the world's most remote islan". news article. BBS News. Retrieved 5 August 2012. 
  10. ^ "Cable & Wireless SA Ltd First Fibre Network for St Helena" St Helena Herald, Volume XI no. 15, 5 August 2011, p. 27
  11. ^ "Cable & Wireless Carries out Major Mechanical Maintenance" The St Helena Independent Volume 1, Issue 37 Friday 21 July 2006, p. 8
  12. ^ a b http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.cwi.sh/our_network.html/
  13. ^ website of Connect St. Helena! campaign
  14. ^ World Telephone Numbering Guide Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha
  15. ^ a b St Helena Government (23 July 2012). "SHG and Cable & Wireless South Atlantic sign new deal". press release. St Helena Government. Retrieved 24 July 2012. 
  16. ^ http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.cwi.sh/broadband.html
  17. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100630165620/http://www.cwi.sh/wifi.html

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.

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