VODAFONE Fiji received about $230 million in remittances on their mobile wallet platform M-PAiSA last year with more than $1m in inward remittances from Europe.
This was confirmed by Vodafone Fiji’s regional CEO Pradeep Lal yesterday who said the company was focusing on developing e-commerce.
Mr Lal said their M-PAiSA had made very steady progress over the years and they were rolling it out in the region, mainly Australia and New Zealand.
Fiji had last year announced its $207m capital investment in its network infrastructure with $60m of the total investment geared towards providing high speed internet services in rural and remote areas including islands.
Speaking at press conference at their headquarters in Tamavua yesterday, Mr Lal said completion of the network upgrade would enable customers to get high speed mobile broadband and new applications aimed at supporting digital transformation.
“We are now more than a telecom operator.
We’re a player involved in everything essential to our customer’s growth in the digital economy including digital financial services,” he said.
Mr Lal said increasing smartphone penetration and higher growth rate in data consumption had reshaped the industry with more focus now on cloud-based products.
He also highlighted that after the completion of the network upgrade more than 50 per cent of the population would have Pre-5G services.
Providing a further breakdown of the total investment, Mr Lal said the total number of base stations would increase from 450 to more than 600 base stations around the country with almost all existing and new base stations providing 4G+ coverage.
According to Mr Lal customers in areas such as Muaniweni, Naiyala, Moto, Kadavu, Yanuca, Beqa, Levuka, Dawasamu, Lomaivuna, Visama, Viria, Balevuto, Varavu and Nausori Highlands will also have access to high speed internet services.
