CASE STUDY FSM Telecom, Micronesia: Providing Mobile Services to Remote Islands In a remote area of the Pacific Ocean lie the Federated States of Micronesia—607 individual islands and atolls scattered over one million square miles, but with a total land area of only 271 square miles. Four main islands are home to the majority of the 110,000 residents and represent the region’s economic and commercial hubs. FSM Telecom, the incumbent telecom provider for the islands, has been offering voice, internet and data services over its wired network since 1983. However, for a number of years, it had wanted to build a cellular network to meet specific requirements, such as providing customers with mobility for voice and internet services, especially in the marine community (fishing and boating are a large part of everyday life in FSM) and reaching areas where it is too costly to extend its wired network. FSM Telecom also had other unique considerations including avoiding expensive inter-island satellite backhaul and withstanding a tropical sea environment that produces extreme moisture, corrosion, heat, and humidity. Over the years, they explored the possibility of building a cellular network many times but traditional large scale cellular networks offered by the various infrastructure providers were simply too large and expensive to serve the citizens of Micronesia. CASE STUDY Website: www.adc.com From North America, Call Toll Free: 1-800-366-3891 • Outside of North America: +1-952-938-8080 Fax: +1-952-917-3237 • For a listing of ADC’s global sales office locations, please refer to our website. ADC Telecommunications, Inc., P.O. Box 1101, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA 55440-1101 Specifications published here are current as of the date of publication of this document. Because we are continuously improving our products, ADC reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. At any time, you may verify product specifications by contacting our headquarters office in Minneapolis. ADC Telecommunications, Inc. views its patent portfolio as an important corporate asset and vigorously enforces its patents. Products or features contained herein may be covered by one or more U.S. or foreign patents. An Equal Opportunity Employer 106324AE 4/08 Original © 2008 ADC Telecommunications, Inc. All Rights Reserved Then at the end of 2001, FSM Telecom discovered ADC’s compact GSM and CDMA systems for developing countries and hard-to-serve areas. The result was that FSM Telecom could cost- effectively build small-scale networks throughout the islands that could contend with the extreme climate conditions. In addition, satellite backhaul is optimized and implemented cost-effectively due to the advanced compression technology in the ADC system. Because ADC’s cellular networks are quick to deploy and highly scalable, FSM Telecom could realize revenues almost immediately by building in the most profitable areas first - and then expanding the network at a later date. The ADC Wireless network— reducing satellite backhaul Using the UltraWAVE product family, a wireless network was installed for FSM with mobile switching centers (MSCs) on the four main Micronesian islands, each of which are 250 miles apart. With intra-island traffic being switched locally, only inter-island traffic was required to be backhauled via satellite. With ADC’s advanced compression technology even those costs were dramatically minimized. Base station controllers (BSC) and base transceiver stations (BTS) were also installed on the four main islands with international traffic aggregated and routed through the main hub on the largest island of Pohnpei for further savings. Rapid Deployment and Expansion Within six months of the first meeting with FSM, its cellular network was up and running with more than 3,000 subscribers. The network’s support of pre-paid services eliminates credit problems while making it easy and quick for new customers to start using the service. And visitors to the islands can either buy a prepaid phone when they arrive or use their own tri-band phone after buying a prepaid SIM card. Either way, it’s an innovative business model that works for FSM. Given the success of the initial deployment, FSM Telecom is now planning the expansion of the network to the outer islands where there is no wired infrastructure. For example, FSM Telecom is evaluating the deployment of ADC’s innovative Network-In-a- Box technology on the remote island of Ulithi, which has only 176 households. This network would be solar powered and would include a small, efficient IP satellite connection to provide the island with Internet and voice services. Results Mobile telephone services available for the first • time in the FSM Lower CAPEX costs coupled with tremendous • growth in usage enabled FSM Telecom to have quick return on investment and realize greater revenues Mobile network which minimizes the use of • expensive satellite backhaul Plans for expansion to provide mobile and • wireless services to FSM’s outer islands that have no existing fixed or wireless networks About FSM Telecom Corporation Established in 1983, it is the sole provider of telecommunications in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) FSM Telecom has built a variety of wired and wireless networks over which it offers voice, Internet and data services to homes and businesses located on islands that are home to most of FSM’s population and commercial centers. . CASE STUDY FSM Telecom, Micronesia: Providing Mobile Services to Remote Islands In a remote area of the Pacific Ocean lie the. Plans for expansion to provide mobile and • wireless services to FSM s outer islands that have no existing fixed or wireless networks About FSM Telecom Corporation