OpenFalklands

20th June 2025: Chloe Freeman, Communications Regulator of the Falkland Islands, provides an update on the status of Starlink’s application to provide service in the islands. ( Thanks FITV) 13th June 2025: The Starlink Petition Group sent the following letter, raising concerns about the government’s press release regarding the change to VSAT policies announced on June 10 2025, 2025. The letter and the response […] Read More

Perhaps this could be an alternative title for this post? “The People Chose Starlink – Will Sure Try to Overrule Them? As Starlink’s long-awaited arrival in the Falkland Islands draws closer, the region’s digital landscape is poised for a historic transformation. Yet not everyone welcomes the change. The local telecommunications provider, Sure South Atlantic (Sure), has expressed significant concern about […] Read More

Nearly twelve months after submitting the Starlink Petition Group’s petition to the Falkland Islands Government in the Town Hall, Stanley, the government has formally revised the VSAT policy and fee level. This is a momentous occasion for all businesses and consumers on the island – Starlink (or, more accurately, VSAT) Freedom has finally arrived! This is the Starlink Petition Group’s […] Read More

25th April 2025 Penguin News 17 April 2025 BBC News Northern Ireland The BBC has delayed blocking BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the UK. “It comes after a decision made by the corporation meant listeners outside the UK would only be able to access Radio 4 and the World Service via a new audio section on BBC.com. In a […] Read More

3rd May Update: Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s VP of Technology, belatedly posted a video showing the launch of the Kuiper satellites at the end of the mission on LinkedIn – “The sequence takes about 15 minutes to complete, and all satellites were successfully deployed right on time 36 minutes into the mission.” It’s a phrase we all know – “you wait […] Read More

Starlink’s Community Gateway on the island of Unalaska. Source: Starlink We’re all familiar with Starlink’s direct-to-consumer-focused low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite service, which offers global low-cost, high-speed internet access. It has quickly become one of the most disruptive innovations in the worldwide telecommunications market. Since launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019, Starlink has experienced phenomenal growth. Today, […] Read More

A further update on the media discussions in April about Starlink, further to an earlier post dated 8th April 2025. 10th April 2025: “Public frustration”..  Credit: Penguin News: Friday 18th April 2025 April 11th 2025 Credit FITV Chris Gare, OpenFalklands April 2025, copyright OpenFalklands

On March 17th 2025, two presentations were given by Sure Falkland Islands in Stanley. The first was to the islands’ businesses who are members of the islands’ Chamber of Commerce, followed by a public meeting at 17:30. The main speaker at the two presentations was Alistair Beak, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sure International. Sure International provide telecommunications services in the […] Read More

FIG’s Consultation extended 8th April 2025: A press statement from the Falkland Islands Government announcing an extension to the current consultation. “VSAT Public Consultation Period Extended The public consultation period on the proposed changes to the policy that guides the issuing of VSAT licences and the associated fee level has been extended by a month. The proposed changes were considered […] Read More

There was a lot of activity during March 2025, and it’s still taking a high priority in early April. Here is how the local media reported on the public meetings Sure Falkland Islands and Cambridge Management Consulting held in late March 2025 – and my letter to the Penguin News! 28th March 2025: My letter to the Penguin News Credit: Penguin […] Read More

This post examines the Falkland Islands Government’s initiative to install network ‘probes’ in the Sure network to measure broadband speed as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI). This initiative was the main driver behind introducing the KPI concept. The post does not cover basic network KPIs such as availability, reachability, or mean time between failures. This is the longest post ever […] Read More

Picture source: Mike Kemp I feel I should apologise for the flurry of posts from OpenFalklands in recent days. But can you blame me with everything happening at warp speed in the Falklands? That has to be a good thing? I have been asked to comment on Sure’s surprising proposal to probably offer two new broadband plans with no quotas […] Read More

Stanley, Falkland Islands town hall Hot on the heels of the Sure Falkland Islands presentation last week and my critiques of some of the comments made over the weekend – post 1, post 2 and post 3 follows the presentation by Cambridge Management Consultants discussing some aspects of the future of telecommunications on the islands. But first: Thursday 20th March 2025: […] Read More

A typical data centre where Points of Presence (PoPs) are hosted (Photo Source: datacenterfrontier.com) This is the final post in a three-part follow-up series covering the presentations delivered by Sure Falkland Islands on March 19th, 2025, in Stanley. You can listen to the public presentation and view the accompanying slides here. In a previous OpenFalklands post, I examined the technical […] Read More

This post is a follow-up to the presentation delivered by Sure Falkland Islands on March 19th, 2025, in Stanley. You can listen to the presentation and view the accompanying slides here. In my last OpenFalklands post, I focused on the technical aspects discussed during the meeting – specifically, the comparison between Starlink and OneWeb’s technical performance in the Falkland Islands. However, […] Read More

In yesterday’s post focussing on Sure Falkland Island’s public presentation, I talked about some observations asserted by the presenter about their technical views of Starlink.  Although I am far from being a technical expert in satellite technology. It is a fact that Starlink is the highest capacity system in existence today. Here are my ‘expert’ technical views (with help from […] Read More

March 19th 2025: Two presentations were given by Sure Falkland Islands in Stanley. The first was to the islands’ businesses who are members of the islands’ Chamber of Commerce and a public meeting at 17:30. The main speaker at the two presentations was Alistair Beak, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sure International. Sure International provide telecommunications services in the Isle […] Read More

Tom Clarke of Sky News in Stanley This is the latest update in the long process of gaining approval for the use of Starlink in the Falkland Islands following the Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in early March 2025. More on that meeting can be seen in this post – Falkland Islands Government Greenlights Starlink. March 7th 2025: Comment on the […] Read More

(and a bit about the possible OneWeb LEO service in St Helena) I’ve discussed the arrival of the Equiano cable in St Helena several times on OpenFalklands with optimism for improved broadband services for islanders. It goes without saying that this was the whole point of the years-long campaign to bring the undersea cable to the island. The focus then […] Read More

This is a very brief OpenFalklands post—probably the shortest I’ve ever published! My last two posts covered the extraordinary week regarding Starlink usage in the Falkland Islands, culminating on Friday with the concerning news that Starlink was discontinuing service to users on the islands. It’s now Monday 10th of February 2025. I highly recommend reading those previous posts to understand […] Read More

In yesterday’s (Thursday) OpenFalklands blog, I noted that while a week may seem long in politics, even a single day can feel like an eternity when it comes to Starlink developments in the Falklands. And then, ‘Black Friday’ arrived on Friday, 7th of February! This morning, some Falkland Islands Starlink users began experiencing service terminations as their 60-day roaming period […] Read More

“Thursday, February 7th 2025: These past few days have been the most contentious since the Starlink Petition Group began its activities in May 2024 to legalise Starlink usage in the Falkland Islands. Boy, what a week so far it has been! They say a week is a long time in politics, but even a day feels like an eternity when […] Read More

KEMH hospital in Stanley, Falkland Islands This post shows the public updates in November and December 2024 in regards to the adoption of Starlink in the Falkland Islands. For new readers who are unfamiliar with the reasons as to why a £5,400 annual licence fee and an exceedingly complex licence process were implemented to prevent VSAT usage on the Falkland […] Read More

Part 2: Updated 10th November 2024 The following item is courtesy of 31st November 2024 Penguin News. An update on several issues concerning Starlink and an interview with Tim Passingham, Chairman of Cambridge Management Consultants. (Source Falkland Islands TV). Thanks FITV! Legislative Assembly meeting formally approving the Starlink Petition Select Committee recommendations. (Source Falkland Islands TV). The drive the Cambridge […] Read More

Updated 25th October 2024 Sure Falkland Islands’ Intelsat satellite dishes in Stanley With the Sure Falkland Islands Exclusive Telecommunications Agreement ending on December 29th 2027, the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) has issued an Invitation to Tender  (ITT) document in June 2024 entitled: “Invitation to Tender for the Provision of Telecommunications Consultancy Services”. The closing date was the 30th of July […] Read More

 The petition objectives were supported by all eight MLA Select Committee members. The final public Starlink Select Committee will be held at 09:00 Falkland Islands time on Thursday 3rd October 2024 held at the Chamber of Commerce. October 2nd 2024: Draft Recommendations of Select Committee of the Legislative Assembly into the Petition: Download PDF: MLA Gavin Short’s statement at the […] Read More

This is the official website for the Starlink Select Committee. The agenda of the 20th September 2024 Starlink Select Committee. Listen to an interview by Kris Ball with Roma Stewart, CEO of Sure Falkland Islands, broadcast on the 18th of September on Falkland Islands Radio service. On September 16th, Sure Falkland Islands updated their new ‘unlimited’ service by an additional a […] Read More

This is the first for OpenFalklands, as all previous posts have focused on topics related to telecommunications on the Falkland Islands. However, exciting times call for something different, so I thought I would like to lighten things up. Trip to Stanley But first, I’d like to let you know that I will visit the Falkland Islands later this month. I […] Read More

The previous OpenFalklands post discussed the first Falkland Islands Government Select Committee concerning the Starlink Petition. It can be found here: Starlink in the Falklands Part 8: First meeting of the Starlink Select Committee. On August 28th, 2024, just a few days before the second Select Committee meeting on the 5th of September 2024, Sure announced several revised Internet access […] Read More

The first meeting of the Starlink Select Committee can be found at the end of this post. 15th July: Peter Biggs interview on Falkland Islands Radio Service. 18th July 2024: 25th July Order paper has been published: July 19th 2024 Credit: (Penguin News) 25th July 2024: MLA Roger Spink presenting the Starlink Petition to the Legislative Assembly (Credit Falkland Islands Radio) […] Read More

Goose Green School By guest author, Andy Trish An Introduction My first visit to the Falkland Islands was in 1982 aboard HMS Hermes. Although I couldn’t come ashore due to my workload, I returned in 1986 and developed a deep love for the islands and their people. Over the years, I have made several visits, each time striving to positively […] Read More

A short post for a change, about the status of Starlink in the Falkland Islands -18th June to 1st July 2024. 18th June 2024: MLA Leona Roberts interview with Kris Ball.  Courtesy of  Falkland Islands Radio, 27th June 2024: Someone’s been busy being artistic. Let’s hope they are right! 29th June 2024: IT department Starlink trial. Courtesy of FITV 1st […] Read More