Tokelau Satellite Emergency

Telecommunications provider for the Tokelau Islands, TeleTok, needed to re-channel their satellite earth stations at the requirement of their satellite provider, Intelsat. Without the satellite service the Tokelau Islands would have no telecommunications access to the rest of the world.

After being let down by the company that had supplied the equipment and started the work for them, TeleTok put an emergency call into Kordia Solutions.  They urgently needed to improve communications to the Tokelau Islands with minimal disruption to service.

TeleTok reached out to Kordia because of its specialist expertise in the design, installation and commissioning of satellite equipment, and also because of its previous work in Pacific Island countries.

Within a few days, Kordia had provided a competitively-priced proposal, agreed upon a contract, and had proposed a start date for the project. The project would involve Steve Barnett, James Norton and Leo Tahitahi from AFS installing and commissioning a 4.8m satellite dish, electronics and DC systems.

Steve Barnett already had a number of satellite earth station installations under his belt. However, these circumstances were quite different, as there aren’t many cranes on the Tokelau Islands. Steve reshuffled his workload, (negotiated with his wife!), and came up with a clever plan to install the dish without the use of a crane.

As the only cost effective way to reach the Tokelau Islands is the infrequent boat service from Samoa, Steve worked closely with Fred Van Iddekinge, the TeleTok Project Manager to coordinate the boat trips and logistics. The team left for Samoa on the 24th of November.

Within days of the team arriving, TeleTok were reporting on the great work the Kordia engineers were undertaking. They managed to install the earth station ahead of schedule, which allowed some well-earned time for spear fishing.
Teletok’s General Manager, Tino Vitale’s feedback about the job was very positive:

“I would like to extend to your management my gratitude for releasing such a fine team at so short notice. They were so easy to get on with and their work ethic was excellent.

"As I said to them during our staff farewell, they were a breath of fresh air from the previous crowd we had – always positive and made daunting tasks simple.  That only comes with experience and professionalism in what they do.  Teletok and Tokelau certainly appreciated them and they will be friends of Tokelau always.”