At the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) 21st AGM and Tradeshow 2017, held in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Huawei outlined its Cloud strategy and introduced new services to help telecom operators and governments drive digital transformation in the Pacific Islands. Huawei also announced a partnership with Solomon Telekom Company Limited (STCL), leading operator of the Solomon Islands, to offer cloud-based gaming, music and video services through a Cloud hosting platform to its growing subscriber base.

David Wei, President of Huawei Southern Pacific Region, said: "In the next 10 years, we will enter a new digital era, where all things are sensing, connected, and intelligent. Cloud will be the centerpiece of all things digital and more industries and enterprises will be using Cloud models to serve customers. It is estimated by 2025, all Enterprise IT solutions will be transferred to Cloud and more than 85% of Enterprise applications will be deployed to the Cloud. Industry demands for Cloud have shifted from cost reduction and operation efficiency to operation innovation and business innovation. Cloud services will become the basic business model."

Based on its comprehensive Cloud strategy, Huawei will provide a Cloud hosting platform enabling operators throughout the Pacific Islands to offer Cloud-based gaming, music and video services, while unlocking new opportunities for consumers, enterprises and governments. Furthermore, Huawei Cloud Services will allow operators to achieve IT system cloudification, maintain a light-asset operation and reduce capital and operating expenditure. Huawei is also offering a "Turnkey Services Solution" to the Pacific Islands, enabling better network deployment to support subscriber populations of any size.

Faced with stiff competition and stagnant growth of traditional services such as voice calls, STCL is strategically focused on developing new revenue-generating services. With Huawei's "Gaming Hosting Solution", STCL will launch high-quality gaming services to enhance its subscribers' experience, while transforming itself into an advanced data service provider and increasing its competitiveness in the market. Under the partnership, Huawei will provide the platform, content aggregation and operational assistance for STCL to build its Cloud services.

Loyley Ngira, Chief Executive of STCL, said: "The Solomon Islands has a young population with an estimated 50% of its citizens under the age of 25. With growing demand for entertainment experiences among this generation, we need a solution that will help us respond to their needs. Huawei Cloud Services will enable us to launch new gaming services that will not only add significant value for subscribers, but also help us grow our position as a leader of consumers' digital lives and drive new revenue streams. We believe our partnership with Huawei will have both a commercial and social impact in the Solomon Islands."

In the e-Government area, Huawei Cloud Services will enable government agencies across the Pacific Islands to drive transformation to become more transparent, systematic and efficient. Greater transparency will be achieved by enabling multiple government departments to share data and processes, and improved governance will allow businesses to easily obtain information, licenses, and more. In such an environment, citizens will be better informed and communicate effectively with Government departments whenever needed.

For the past 12 years, Huawei has worked closely with local governments and telecom operators across the Pacific Islands to help modernize their networks and build higher quality submarine cable systems, bringing information to the doorsteps of their citizens, governments and enterprises. Through cloudification, the distance and remoteness of the Pacific Islands will no longer be a barrier to a high-quality network experience.

Huawei believes partnering in an open, collaborative ecosystem is critical to enabling digital transformation in the Pacific Islands. Its partners, both globally and more importantly locally, will be able to take advantage of Huawei's extensive experience across ICT development to respond to the ever changing needs of the Pacific Islands.

Source: Huawei media announcement