This post follows up on the two major service announcements made by Sure Falkland Islands (Sure) on 19th March 2025: the introduction of “cheaper and […] Read More
Category: Broadband
I last wrote about telecommunications in St Helena in February 2024, so it could be worthwhile reviewing St Helena terrestrial fibre optic network disaster if you […] Read More
20th June 2025: Chloe Freeman, Communications Regulator of the Falkland Islands, provides an update on the status of Starlink’s application to provide service in the […] Read More
Perhaps this could be an alternative title for this post? “The People Chose Starlink – Will Sure Try to Overrule Them? As Starlink’s long-awaited arrival […] Read More
Nearly twelve months after submitting the Starlink Petition Group’s petition to the Falkland Islands Government in the Town Hall, Stanley, the government has formally revised […] Read More
25th April 2025 Penguin News 17 April 2025 BBC News Northern Ireland The BBC has delayed blocking BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the UK. […] Read More
3rd May Update: Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s VP of Technology, belatedly posted a video showing the launch of the Kuiper satellites at the end of the […] Read More
Starlink’s Community Gateway on the island of Unalaska. Source: Starlink We’re all familiar with Starlink’s direct-to-consumer-focused low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite service, which offers global […] Read More
A further update on the media discussions in April about Starlink, further to an earlier post dated 8th April 2025. 10th April 2025: “Public frustration”.. Credit: […] Read More
Comment on TTP/ Sure South Atlantic’s Starlink paper: A Security, Political and Technical Assessment
On March 17th 2025, two presentations were given by Sure Falkland Islands in Stanley. The first was to the islands’ businesses who are members of […] Read More
FIG’s Consultation extended 8th April 2025: A press statement from the Falkland Islands Government announcing an extension to the current consultation. “VSAT Public Consultation Period […] Read More
There was a lot of activity during March 2025, and it’s still taking a high priority in early April. Here is how the local media […] Read More
This post examines the Falkland Islands Government’s initiative to install network ‘probes’ in the Sure network to measure broadband speed as a Key Performance Indicator […] Read More
Picture source: Mike Kemp I feel I should apologise for the flurry of posts from OpenFalklands in recent days. But can you blame me with […] Read More
Stanley, Falkland Islands town hall Hot on the heels of the Sure Falkland Islands presentation last week and my critiques of some of the comments […] Read More
A typical data centre where Points of Presence (PoPs) are hosted (Photo Source: datacenterfrontier.com) This is the final post in a three-part follow-up series covering […] Read More
This post is a follow-up to the presentation delivered by Sure Falkland Islands on March 19th, 2025, in Stanley. You can listen to the presentation […] Read More
In yesterday’s post focussing on Sure Falkland Island’s public presentation, I talked about some observations asserted by the presenter about their technical views of Starlink. […] Read More
March 19th 2025: Two presentations were given by Sure Falkland Islands in Stanley. The first was to the islands’ businesses who are members of the […] Read More
Tom Clarke of Sky News in Stanley This is the latest update in the long process of gaining approval for the use of Starlink in […] Read More
The wait is over – the light at the end of the tunnel is here! The Executive Committee (ExCo) of the Falkland Islands Government has […] Read More
(and a bit about the possible OneWeb LEO service in St Helena) I’ve discussed the arrival of the Equiano cable in St Helena several times […] Read More
This is a very brief OpenFalklands post—probably the shortest I’ve ever published! My last two posts covered the extraordinary week regarding Starlink usage in the […] Read More
In yesterday’s (Thursday) OpenFalklands blog, I noted that while a week may seem long in politics, even a single day can feel like an eternity […] Read More
“Thursday, February 7th 2025: These past few days have been the most contentious since the Starlink Petition Group began its activities in May 2024 to […] Read More
KEMH hospital in Stanley, Falkland Islands This post shows the public updates in November and December 2024 in regards to the adoption of Starlink in […] Read More
These are the last few days until the end of this most essential telecommunications survey. Think of all those times when you wished the islands […] Read More
Part 2: Updated 10th November 2024 The following item is courtesy of 31st November 2024 Penguin News. An update on several issues concerning Starlink and […] Read More
Updated 25th October 2024 Sure Falkland Islands’ Intelsat satellite dishes in Stanley With the Sure Falkland Islands Exclusive Telecommunications Agreement ending on December 29th 2027, […] Read More
The petition objectives were supported by all eight MLA Select Committee members. The final public Starlink Select Committee will be held at 09:00 Falkland Islands […] Read More
This is the official website for the Starlink Select Committee. The agenda of the 20th September 2024 Starlink Select Committee. Listen to an interview by Kris […] Read More
This is the first for OpenFalklands, as all previous posts have focused on topics related to telecommunications on the Falkland Islands. However, exciting times call […] Read More
The previous OpenFalklands post discussed the first Falkland Islands Government Select Committee concerning the Starlink Petition. It can be found here: Starlink in the Falklands […] Read More
The first meeting of the Starlink Select Committee can be found at the end of this post. 15th July: Peter Biggs interview on Falkland Islands […] Read More
Even allowing the affordable use of Starlink in the Falkland Islands represents a significant transformation opportunity, Starlink’s current status in the Falkland Islands is just […] Read More
A UK government Select Committee The public meeting organised by the Starlink Petition Group (live-streamed over Starlink) in Stanley Town Hall was considered a great […] Read More
On July 11th, 2024, the team’s hard work in the Falkland Islands culminated in a public meeting in Stanley Falkland Islands’ Town Hall. The meeting […] Read More
These are all the final media publications relating to the use of Starlink in the Falkland Islands before the public meeting on July 11th 2024. […] Read More
Please remember the Starlink Petition Group’s public meeting tonight in the Town Hall in Stanley, Falkland Islands. It is also being live-streamed on YouTube. Doors […] Read More
Goose Green School By guest author, Andy Trish An Introduction My first visit to the Falkland Islands was in 1982 aboard HMS Hermes. Although I […] Read More
A short post for a change, about the status of Starlink in the Falkland Islands -18th June to 1st July 2024. 18th June 2024: MLA […] Read More
Observations. This is a long and very technical post, but it is necessary to examine the issues. Before I start, I wish to clarify three […] Read More
Warning! This is a long issue, as it captures all the action concerning Starlink use in the Falkland Islands since Part 4 was published in […] Read More
In September 2022, the history behind the £5,400 VSAT (Starlink) licence fee. In Part 1, The Ascension Island Story, I outlined the history of Starlink adoption […] Read More
21st June 2024 update: It’s been a while since I published the history of VSAT legislation in the Falkland Islands in September 2022, which describes […] Read More
Update: September 28th 2022. Although this is ‘old news’, it is still worth publishing; I’ve managed to get hold of a recording of the 10th […] Read More
Source: About St Helena The 16th September 2022 issue of the St Helena Independent newspaper on page 3 discusses the plan for an island-wide fibre-optic […] Read More
Since 2020 there has been a tremendous increase in consumer interest in LEOs in the Falkland Islands, but this has been myopically focused on SpaceX’s […] Read More
It’s been a quiet year on OpenFalklands with less opportunity to write technical articles about Falkland Islands telecommunications subjects (I’ve done most!) and with a […] Read More
News about telecommunications that would be interesting to Falkland Island consumers or businesses.
Source: St Helena Independent – VOLUME XV ISSUE 48, 6th NOVEMBER 2020 A new Telecommunications company is being proposed for St Helena.
There has been confusion about the legality of local IP services or applications with Sure South Atlantic’s Exclusive Operating Licence in place. This concern has […] Read More
Previous updates concerning the Communications Regulator Notice of Appeal maybe seen here and here. UPDATE #5: 7th August 2020. Here is the Falkland Islands TV’s […] Read More
The original post can be found further down. Update #9: 7th August 2020 I have today sent a further email to Sure Falkland Islands. To: […] Read More
Update, 21st MaRCH 2020 I’ve sent an email to MLAs To: Falkland Islands MLAs cc: Falkland Islands Attorney General Although this is an important issue […] Read More
Update; 7th February, CoC meeting Please take a look at the FITV‘s short report on the closed meeting held at The Chamber of Commerce […] Read More
Following my previous post – National Broadband Strategy: Subsea cable study, there is a subject that has not had sufficient public debate – Internet blackout […] Read More
I have waited with high expectation for the publication of the Falkland Islands Broadband Strategy as proposed in the March 2019 Telecommunications Week. The only […] Read More
I had a busy trip to the Falkland Islands in November and I want to thank all those individuals that helped make my visit so […] Read More
Final Update #12: 12th December 2019 I am pleased to report that I have heard from IANA that diversity has at long last been added […] Read More
On Thursday 28th November 2019, I gave a presentation in the Chamber of Commerce in Stanley, Falkland Islands concerning the Islands’ Internet service. This was […] Read More
On Thursday 28th November 2019, I gave a presentation in the Chamber of Commerce in Stanley, Falkland Islands concerning the Islands’ Internet. This was videoed […] Read More
I gave the following well-attended presentation to an audience in the Chamber of Commerce in Stanley, Falkland Islands at 17:00 Thursday, 28th November 2019. The […] Read More
Update #4: 6th December. Following comments on Facebook, there seem to be continuing issues with regard to unstable Internet routes to the Falkland Islands since […] Read More
Update #8: 10th November 2019 Sadly, it looks like there are still ongoing issues with the Falkland Islands Internet service after receiving several emails and […] Read More
In October 2019 the Falkland Islands TV channel published a report on the proposed December 2019 FIG-financed doubling of satellite capacity to 400Mbit/s. Kyle Knappett […] Read More
Back now in what now seems the dim and distant past, during Communications Week in March 2019, Jason Lewis hosted a Let’s Talk interview on […] Read More
On July 1st 2019, the Falkland Islands’ Communications Regulator issued a “Direction to Sure Falkland Islands, No 2019/01a Quality of Service” which requires Sure Falkland […] Read More
On July 1st 2019, the Falkland Islands’ Communications Regulator issued a “Direction to Sure Falkland Islands, No 2019/01a Quality of Service” which requires Sure Falkland […] Read More
I’ve seen many Facebook posts and heard many comments made over the years expressing the desire for Sure Falkland Islands to offer data ‘Carry-Over’ or […] Read More
Update: 30th May 2019 Batelco signed the original Agreement with Star Solutions to install 4G LTE in the South Atlantic islands in March 2015. I […] Read More
Although consumers generally only care about whether their mobile phones work and that they get a ‘signal’ when they want to make a call, I […] Read More
Synopsis It’s critical for Falkland Islanders to be able to fully participate in the world of on-line services which are now driven by concerns of […] Read More
Synopsis. This is a very technical post so it will only be of interest if you are involved in managing a website hosted OUTSIDE of […] Read More
I was pleased to see Household [Internet] User Habits survey on the Falkland Islands as an element of Communications Week in March 2019. However, the […] Read More
In this post I would like to take a look at what is happening in the Internet world outside of the Falkland Islands though I […] Read More
I have been talking about the Falkland Islands taking an Exponential Approach rather than taking an Incremental Approach to improving Internet services in posts such […] Read More
One of the activities of the Falkland Islands Communications Week was to inform the National Broadband Strategy (which I would like renamed the National Internet […] Read More
I was pleased when I first heard about the desire to create a National Broadband Strategy for the Falkland Islands. In so many ways, it […] Read More
May 14th update Saint Helena and the Falkland Islands Face Simultaneous Outages. (14-05-19)”] On 30 April 2019, internet service in the Falkland Islands and Saint […] Read More
During the Falkland Islands Communications Week, it was mentioned that Sure needed to “look at broadband contention going forward” [or something close to that]. So […] Read More
In Part 1 of this post I talked about the history of monitoring the Quality of Experience of the Falkland Islands’ broadband service – The […] Read More
My apologies for a long post but it’s a complex subject – please stick with it but I have split it into Parts 1 and […] Read More
In the last post The enigma of monthly Internet usage quota, I took a look at an issue that will have a major impact on […] Read More
In my last post on OpenFalklands I looked at the current status of Falkland Islands satellite capacity which dictates the quality of experience of using […] Read More
In my last post, St Helena’s submarine cable, I talked about the SAEx1 submarine cable that is going to connect St Helena to the rest […] Read More