- Communications in East Timor
Following
Indonesia n withdrawal fromEast Timor in 1999, the telecommunications infrastructure was destroyed in the ensuing violence, and Telkom Indonesia ceased to provide services. A new country code (670) was allocated to East Timor by theInternational Telecommunication Union , 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 theNorth American Numbering Plan , now use the "country code" 1 and the "area code" 670.)It is also often extremely expensive: for example,
Telstra inAustralia raised the cost of calls to East Timor to A$3.00 a minute from 97 cents in 2003. In theUK , BT's standard rate is nearly £2 a minute [http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Cust_Opts_Bus_boo/2-3192_d0e377.htm] .Telstra expanded its cellular telephone signal into East Timor in 2000, and operated services until 2003, when
Timor Telecom , 50.1% part-owned byPortugal Telecom , began operating fixed line and mobile telephone services. Until recently, the fixed line network was mainly confined to the capitalDili , although this has been expanded nationwide, to each district capital.According to a press-release issued by
Portugal Telecom , the total number of fixed phones (landline ) are 3,000 andmobile cellular are 103,000 (as of June 2008). There is nobroadband orADSL service.Portugal Telecom signed a 15-year contract in 2002 to invest US$ 29 million to rebuild and operate the phone system. The contract could be extended by 10 more years, totalling 25 years ofmonopoly . 2003 gross revenue totalled € 10.5 million.All voice and data are carried out by
Intelsat , using a directsatellite link with one hop to theirdownlink inPortugal .Telephones - main lines in use:
3,000 "(perPortugal Telecom press-release from Aug 2008)"Telephones - mobile cellular:
103,000 "(perPortugal Telecom press-release from Aug 2008)"Telephone system:
NARadio broadcast stations:
AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
The main station is Radio Timor Leste, broadcasting inTetum , Portuguese and Indonesian. 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 , and theBBC World Service . Community radio stations broadcast around the country, in regional languages such asTokodede andFataluku .Radios:
5Television broadcast stations:
1 "Televisão Timor Leste" or "Televizaun Timor Lorosae" - broadcasts local programming in Tetum and Portuguese, as well as retransmissions ofRTP Internacional fromPortugal ,ABC Asia Pacific fromAustralia andBBC World from the UK. The terrestrial TV signal is presently confined to Dili, with only taped broadcasts being available inBaucau , but the Portuguese government and RTP were to help build new transmitters to expand TVTL's coverage nationwide during 2006.In May 2007, RTTL's television and radio services became available via satellite, using a transponder leased from
Telkom Indonesia . [http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/4/14/telkom-wins-13-million-tender-in-timor-leste/] [http://www.lyngsat.com/telkom1.html]Televisions:
NAInternet country code:
.tp is the internettop-level domain code used for East Timor, based on its previousISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code. However, the latter code was officially changed to TL when the country achieved its independence on May 20, 2002, and during the course of 2005-06, internet domains will change from '.tp ' to '.tl '.Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
2Timor Telecom is an ISP itself along with one downstream provider, [http://www.inet.tp iNet] . The latter only offers services in the capital, Dili. Two-waySatellite 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-Timor Telecom services. As such, internet services are restricted to locations with landline telephone or dedicated line infrastructure.WiMAX andGPRS internet access are not available.Voice over IP Timor Telecom has sought to block someVoice over IP services on its network such asSkype , and as a result some such services may not function.Internet users:
Dial-up: 2,100 "(perTimor Telecom press-release from Oct 2004)"Broadband : 50 "(perTimor Telecom press-release from Oct 2004)"External links
* [http://www.timortelecom.tl Timor Telecom]
* [http://www.inet.tp iNet]
* [http://www.nic.tl Timor-Leste Network Information Center]
* [http://www.rttl.tl Radio e Televisão de Timor Leste]
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