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.
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[edit] Saint Helena
[edit] Radio
Radio St Helena,[1] which started operations on Christmas Day 1967, provides a local radio service that has a range of about 100 km from the island, and also broadcasts internationally on Shortwave Radio (11092.5 kHz) on one day a year.[2] The station presents news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Herald.
Saint FM[3] provides a local radio service for the island which is also available on internet radio[4] and relayed in Ascension Island. The station is not government funded. It was launched in January 2005. It broadcasts news, features and music in collaboration with its sister newspaper, the St Helena Independent.
[edit] Television
Cable & Wireless offers television for the island via three analogue terrestrial UHF channels, which rebroadcast a compilation of English programmes provided by Multichoice (South Africa). 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 in St Helena, which will allow to increase the number of TV channels significantly.[6] Local St Helena Broadcasting Service will broadcast television in 2014 on channel 1.[clarification needed]
[edit] Telecommunications
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.[7]
A satellite ground station with a 7.6 metre satellite dish installed in 1989[8] at The Briars is the only international connection providing satellite links through Intelsat 707 to Ascension island and the United Kingdom.[9] Since all international telephone and internet communications are relying on this single satellite link both internet and telephone service are subject to sun outages.
An initiative called 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.[10]
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.[11] Currently there is no cellular network installed in St Helena.
[edit] Internet
Saint Helena has a 10/3.6 Mbit/s[12] internet link via Intelsat 707 provided by Cable & Wireless International UK. For a population of more than 4000 this single satellite link is considered being inadequate in terms of bandwidth.
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.[13] There are few public Wi-Fi hotspots in Jamestown, which are also being operated by Cable & Wireless.[14]
[edit] General statistics[15]
Telephones - main lines in use: 2,900 (2009)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 0 (2009)
Telephone system:
domestic: automatic network; HF radiotelephone from Saint Helena to Ascension, then into worldwide submarine cable and satellite networks
international: HF radiotelephone from Saint Helena to Ascension, which is a major coaxial submarine cable relay point between South Africa, Portugal, and UK; satellite earth stations - 5 (4 on Ascension Island; 1 on St Helena)
Radio broadcast stations: (Local stations for Saint Helena island)
| Band | Number of stations | List of stations |
|---|---|---|
| VHF | 1 | Saint FM |
| MF | 1 | Radio Saint Helena |
| HF | 0 | (Radio St Helena makes occasional shortwave broadcasts) |
| LF | 0 | |
| Internet Streaming | 1 | Saint FM |
Radios: 3,000 (1997)
Radio stations: 6 (2007) (2 on St Helena; 1 on Ascension; 3 (ZOE-FM 93.5 and its shortwave relay on 3290 KHz) on Tristan da Cunha; and 1 BFBS
Television broadcast stations: 0 (2007)
Televisions: 2,000 (1997)
Internet users: 900 (2009)
Internet hosts: 6,873 (2010)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000)
Meteorological stations: 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.
Country code (Top level domain): .sh and .ac (Ascension Island)
[edit] See also
- Transport on Saint Helena
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha#Communications
- Category:Radio stations in Saint Helena
[edit] References
- ^ News.co.sh
- ^ Dexter, G. (2009, October). A goal for the DX season: target ten for '10. Popular Communications, 28(2), 11-14.
- ^ Saint.fm
- ^ Saint.fm
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100630165546/http://www.cwi.sh/downloads/PubInfoTV.pdf
- ^ "Digital Terrestrial Television Project progresses for C&W SA Ltd", The St Helena Independent Volume VI, Issue 49, Friday 21 October 2011, p. 3
- ^ "Cable & Wireless SA Ltd First Fibre Network for St Helena" St Helena Herald, Volume XI no. 15, 5 August 2011, p. 27
- ^ "Cable & Wireless Carries out Major Mechanical Maintenance" The St Helena Independent Volume 1, Issue 37 Friday 21 July 2006, p. 8
- ^ http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.cwi.sh/our_network.html/
- ^ website of initiative Connect St. Helena!
- ^ World Telephone Numbering Guide Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha
- ^ http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.cwi.sh/our_network.html/
- ^ http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.cwi.sh/broadband.html
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20100630165620/http://www.cwi.sh/wifi.html
- ^ CIA World Factbook St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
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