24 Feb 2014

ICT improvements being rolled out in Niue

7:54 am on 24 February 2014

The groundwork is being laid so Niue can deliver better telephone services, internet, and television programmes to every home on the island.

The secretary to the government Richard Hipa, says the EU-funded project to replace all electric cables around the island is being coupled with the installation of fibre optic cables, which is almost complete.

Mr Hipa says customers are already being connected to the new fibre optic system, which is providing better telephone reception.

He says improvements to information and communications technology will assist the country's economic development and hopefully increase overseas investment in Niue.

"With tourism et cetera, business investment and also with the government it will assist in our education, health et cetera, So there is a big framework under the programmes that we are looking forward to implementing over the next year, this will change the whole situation in Niue."

Richard Hipa says Cabinet recently approved the expansion of bandwidth and discussions were held last week for further IT developments in Niue.