By J. Brock (SARTMA)
Remoteness causes severe problems in communicating with Tristan da Cunha but these problems will soon be solved.
Communicating with Tristan da Cunha is an expensive venture not only for those calling in, but also for those sending faxes and e-mails out. Ditto for phoning. Though there is radio-telephone, Tristan does have a few satellite phones. One has been in operation for about eleven years and that one has been exclusively for the use of the Administrator. There is a second satellite phone – basically a public telephone – an alternative to the radio-telephone that is in operation between Tristan and Cape Town.
The cost is still a problem, even at £4.00 a minute. The little mini phone for the public costs about $3.00 a minute. It works out about twice as much as the cost of the radio-telephone. There is much clearer reception and not all the constant communications procedure as with a radio-telephone.
With the satellite phone, Tristanians can talk direct as opposed to having to go through a radio operator. Stratosnet is the public e-mail system. E-mails used to come through the Administrator’s office.
There is no internal phone service at all on Tristan. No houses have telephones but there are a few phones in the offices. A basic inter-office phone system was just up and running before the hurricane interrupted it.
E-mails are quite a big problem for the Island. Former Administrator, Brian Baldwin took it in when he came to Tristan purely because he wanted to link up with his family. If there was a telephone link, he knew he could get e-mail. One or two of the Tristanians had friends with e-mails and they also used his system. Now, both e-mail addresses get hundreds of messages a day and it costs to download them. The cost has to be defrayed somehow within the system and this means that out-going e-mails cost £6.50 each. The average Tristan wage is £6.50 per day.
It didn’t take islanders long to learn about e-mail and by October 2000, the Administrator was sending and receiving 50 e-mails a day. That was quite a lot for the then population of 280.
Prior to these rudimentary improvements, there what is fondly called, snail mail. Tristanians were adept at putting it on Tour ships going south towards the Falklands and north towards St. Helena and Ascension. There is a regular fishing boat that comes every six weeks or so and mail goes on that as well. A round trip for mail can be anything up to six months.
Instant communications were much better because there are a lot of Tristanians living in the UK who want to keep in touch with family back home. Hopefully, the Tristan Times website can help with keeping people in touch.
A search is ongoing for a more cost-effective satellite system that will make it easier for Tristanians to keep in touch over the internet and via phone with loved ones and friends overseas. Until then, there are a few basic rules to follow when communicating with Tristan da Cunha.
- Keep messages short and to the point
- Do not attach photographs
- Text only
