Tuvalu is one of the smallest nations of the world with 10,619 population and 26 square kilometers of land spreading over 09 islands in a chain, 676 km long on the outer western edge of Polynesia. Funafuti is the largest atoll of the nine low reef islands and atolls. This makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru.

Tuvalu only recently ended the monopoly of the incumbent operator Tuvalu Telecommunication Corporation (TTC) by giving power of licensing to the Minister for Communications and Transport. However it is yet to come up with a roadmap of de-regulation and licensing.

Like any other incumbent, TTC is not ready for competition and apprehensive of its viability. It believes that the de-regulation will hit it the most on international voice and data business.

The monopoly operator TTC currently provides all telecommunication services in the country. Whole country has a satellite bandwidth of 4 Meg up and 4 Meg down. Fixed phones are around 1000 and mobile around 3000 but only one third of the SIMs are active. Total ADSL connections are around 200. Voice traffic in the capital is minimal because everyone lives within walking distance, and the most of the traffic is inter-islands and international.

GSM mobile cellular service is currently available in only 3 Islands including its capital. In the capital Funafuti it has only one GSM BTS tower with couple of repeaters, which covers whole of the capital population of over 5000.

Despite being tiny, it is very lucky to have the most popular ccTLD .tv. I already mentioned that in one of previous blogs, now Tuvalu has extended its arrangement with VeriSign up 2021. It also leased its national numbers but these landed in the hands of adult entertainment industry, which caused an embarrassment for Tuvalu. Now Tuvalu is left with only 2 & 9 after +688 and rest is apparently out of its hands with no revenues coming.

Other than telecommunication, its connection to the outside world is by air through Fiji. Its only airport is an airfield constructed during World War II.