Communications in East Timor - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Telecommunications Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste


Landlines (2006):	3,000
Mobile lines (2007):	103,000
ccTLD Country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory.... :	.tl .tl .tl is the current country code top-level domain for East Timor . It is administered through the Council of Country Code Administrators and second-level registration is available through resellers worldwide with no local presence requirement.The previous ccTLD for East Timor was .tp...
Calling code:	+670

Country code

Following Indonesia's

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

withdrawal from East Timor

East Timor

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

in 1999, the telecommunications infrastructure was destroyed in the ensuing violence, and Telkom Indonesia

Telkom (Indonesia)

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk , commonly abbreviated as Telkom Indonesia or just Telkom, is the largest telecommunications services company in Indonesia. Telkom is a semi-privatized, majority state owned multi-listed company....

ceased to provide services. A new country code (670) was allocated to East Timor by the International Telecommunication Union

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

, but international access often remained severely limited.

A complicating factor has been the fact that 670 was previously used by the Northern Marianas, with many carriers not aware that the code is now used by East Timor. (The Northern Marianas, as part of the North American Numbering Plan

North American Numbering Plan

The North American Numbering Plan is an integrated telephone numbering plan administered by Neustar which encompasses 24 countries and territories, including the United States and its territories, Canada, Bermuda, and 16 nations of the Caribbean...

, now use the country code 1 and the area code 670

Area code 670

The area code 670 is the local telephone area code for the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands . It was created on July 1, 1997 and replaced the previous International Telecommunication Union country code 670, which is now used by East Timor....

Prices

Telephone calls are also often extremely expensive: for example, Telstra

Telstra

Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....

in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

raised the cost of calls to East Timor to A$3.00 a minute from 97 cents in 2003. In the UK, BT's standard rate is nearly £2 a minute http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Cust_Opts_Bus_boo/2-3192_d0e377.htm.

Companies

Telstra expanded its cellular telephone signal into East Timor in 2000, and operated services until 2003, when Timor Telecom

Timor Telecom

Timor Telecom is a telecommunications company in Timor-Leste ....

, 50.1% part-owned by Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Although it operates mainly in Portugal and Brazil, it has also a significant presence in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, Angola, Kenya, the People's Republic of China, and São Tomé and...

, began operating fixed line and mobile telephone services. Until recently, the fixed line network was mainly confined to the capital Dili

Dili

Dili, spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital, largest city, chief port and commercial centre of East Timor.-Geography and Administration:Dili lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands....

, although this has been expanded nationwide, to each district capital.

Statistics

According to a press-release issued by Portugal Telecom

Portugal Telecom

, the total number of fixed phones (landline

Landline

A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...

) are 3,000 and mobile cellular are 103,000 (as of June 2008). There is no broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

or ADSL service.

Investment

Portugal Telecom

signed a 15-year contract in 2002 to invest US$ 29 million to rebuild and operate the phone system. The contract could be extended by 10 more years, totaling 25 years of monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

. 2003 gross revenue totaled € 10.5 million.

Satellite link

All voice and data are carried out by Intelsat

Intelsat

Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...

, using a direct satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

link with one hop

Hop (telecommunications)

In telecommunication, the term hop has the following meanings:#The excursion of a radio wave from the Earth to the ionosphere and back to the Earth...

to their downlink in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

Domestic System

As explained above, the domestic telephone system suffered significant damage during the violence associated with East Timorese independence. As a result, there is extremely limited fixed-line services, and mobile-cellular services and coverage are limited primarily to urban areas.

Mobile Coverage

With this said, Timor Telecom offers mobile GSM services covering 69.5% of the population, 100% of the districts, and 57% of the sub-districts (map of mobile coverage).

International System

International service is available in major urban centers, but not much elsewhere.

Radio

There are at least 21 radio stations in East Timor. The main station is Radio Timor Leste, broadcasting in Tetum, Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

and Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

. Other radio stations include Radio Kmanek, and Radio Falintil, and Radio Renascença, while there are also FM retransmissions of RDP Internacional from Portugal, Radio Australia

Radio Australia

Radio Australia is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Australia's public broadcaster.- History :...

, and the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

. Community radio stations broadcast around the country, in regional languages such as Tokodede and Fataluku.

Television

East Timor has one national public broadcaster, Televisão Timor Leste or Televizaun Timor Lorosae, which broadcasts local programming in Tetum and Portuguese, as well as retransmissions of RTP Internacional

RTP Internacional

RTP Internacional is the international television service of Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, the Portuguese public broadcaster...

from Portugal

Portugal

.

In May 2007, RTTL's television and radio services became available via satellite

Satellite television

Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

, using a transponder leased from Telkom Indonesia.http://www.telkom.co.id/media-corner/press-release/telkom-successfully-wins-a-contract-of-satellite-transponder-procurement-for-rttl-timor-leste.html http://www.lyngsat.com/telkom1.html.

In February 2009, TVTL began carrying programmes from Rede Globo

Rede Globo

Rede Globo , or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on April 26, 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Organizações Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings...

in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

.http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/19837

Internet

The internet country code for East Timor is currently .tl

.tl

.tl is the current country code top-level domain for East Timor . It is administered through the Council of Country Code Administrators and second-level registration is available through resellers worldwide with no local presence requirement.The previous ccTLD for East Timor was .tp...

. This code was officially changed from .tp

.tp

.tp was the listed Internet country code top-level domain for East Timor. The letters used refer to Timor Português or Portuguese Timor a legacy from the nation's previous status as a Portuguese colony...

(for Portuguese Timor) when the country achieved its independence on May 20, 2002.

East Timor has approximately 1,200 Internet users (2006) and 285 Internet hosts (2008). The vast majority of users use dial-up in lieu of broadband, as only 50 hosts offer any broadband service.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

There is only one ISP in East Timor, Timor Telecom. Two-way Satellite Internet is in theory available, as the country falls within the Australian and Asian footprints of several satellites offering this service, however in practice licences are not granted for use of non-East Timorese Telecom services. As such, internet services are restricted to locations with landline telephone or dedicated line infrastructure. WiMAX

WiMAX

WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...

and GPRS internet access are not available.

Voice over IP (VoIP)

Timor Telecom

Timor Telecom is a telecommunications company in Timor-Leste ....

has sought to block some Voice over IP

Voice over IP

Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...

services on its network such as Skype

Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...

. As a result, some such services may not function.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.