CASE STUDY
Why fibre matters
Higher capacity: Supports exponential growth in data demand
Greater reliability: Less vulnerable to weather and environmental disruption
Lower latency: Enables real-time applications such as video learning and telehealth
Future-ready: Scales to meet long-term digital and economic growth
digital learning tools, businesses faced barriers to growth and communities were left exposed during emergencies when reliable communications were most critical.
Telecom Fiji has embarked on an ambitious journey to transform connectivity across the country’ s Northern Division, bringing highspeed, reliable digital access to communities that have historically been underserved.
A five-year vision for a resilient network
To overcome these challenges, Telecom Fiji launched an ambitious five-year fibre investment plan aimed at building a highly resilient, scalable national backbone network. This strategic initiative focuses not only on improving current services but on creating the foundation for Fiji’ s digital future.
At the heart of this transformation is a new backbone fibre network powered by Ciena’ s 5184 coherent routing solution. This milestone investment marks a significant step toward closing the digital divide, connecting homes, schools, healthcare facilities and businesses in remote communities that were once left behind due to geography and infrastructure limitations.
The challenge: Geography, weather and limited connectivity
For years, Northern Fiji relied heavily on microwave radio links to deliver connectivity. While these links served as an essential stopgap, they were inherently vulnerable to the region’ s challenging weather conditions. Heavy rainfall, cyclones and environmental disruptions often compromised network reliability, limiting consistent access for consumers and constraining business operations.
The result was more than just slower Internet speeds. It was restricted opportunity. Educational institutions struggled to adopt
A cornerstone of this vision is the Savusavu to Labasa Fibre Project, a new high-capacity fibre corridor that stretches from the Savusavu submarine cable landing station through key exchanges in Savusavu, Seaqaqa and Labasa. By establishing this fibre route, Telecom Fiji has created a robust data highway that significantly enhances network performance across the Northern Division.
This new backbone does not just replace legacy infrastructure. It fundamentally changes what is possible. With greater speed, reliability and capacity, the network now supports sustained economic development, digital services expansion and stronger community resilience.
Partnering with Ciena for advanced routing and coherent technology
To bring this project to life, Telecom Fiji partnered with Ciena, deploying the Ciena 5184 coherent routing solution as a core component of the fibre network. The 5184 routers enable delivery speeds of up to 100GbE, ensuring the backbone can meet both current demand and future growth. www. intelligentcio. com
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