New Caledonia, situated in the Southern Pacific, is a unique collectivity of France. A French collectivity is a territory that is governed by the French Constitution and has its own local government and regulatory authority. It operates independently from the European Union, exempting it from EU roaming regulations. As a result, international providers typically impose high roaming charges for usage within New Caledonia. Even French providers treat New Caledonia as an overseas destination, akin to certain other French overseas territories. Despite this, the archipelago boasts a robust telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring both residents and visitors have access to a diverse range of mobile services.
OPT-NC dominates New Caledonia's telecommunications landscape, holding a monopoly over fixed and mobile voice services, mobile internet, fixed broadband access, and wholesale services for other internet service providers.
The nation benefits from extensive 3G and LTE networks, contributing to one of the highest highest smartphone adoption rates in the Pacific region. Projections indicate that smartphone penetration will rise to 71% by 2025.
Mobile services operate on various frequencies depending on the location within the country: 2G operates on 900 MHz, while 3G operates on 900 MHz in rural areas and 2100 MHz in urban centers. 4G/LTE operates on 800, 1800, and 2100 MHz (bands 1, 3, 20).
L’Office des Postes et Télécommunications de Nouvelle-Calédonie (OPT-NC) stands as the exclusive operator, a public enterprise established in 2003. Its services encompass banking, postal, and telecommunications provisions, including landline, ADSL, and mobile phone services.
The 2G network is being phased out since 2022 and will cease to exist on 1st Jan 2025. The press release explains (translated from French):
OPT-NC has stopped deploying new 2G sites since 2019 and has been gradually shutting down the technology since the beginning of 2022 on sites in urban areas. The final shutdown is planned for 2025.
To confirm the definitive end of 2G technology, OPT-NC supports its customers by:
- Extending homogeneous 3G/4G coverage to the current 2G coverage;
- Densifying the dimensioning of the mobile network so as to be able to properly absorb traffic;
- Deploying cellular Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, namely:
- the NB-IoT which will serve uses such as smart metering, smart city, smart agriculture;
- the CAT-M1 which is a network capable of responding to complex issues, mobility or real time. It will provide the same level of service as 2G for uses such as vehicle tracking.
OPT, in conjunction with the government of New Caledonia, is progressing with the implementation of private 5G networks. Earlier this year marked the initial stride toward integrating "private 5G" networks into industrial sectors within New Caledonia.
Olivier Amat, the director of telecommunications at OPT, elucidated the organization's strategy strategy regarding 5G. He recounted the evolution from 2G to 4G before delving into the potentials of 5G: "With speeds of up to 10Gbps, support for up to 100 times more connected devices per coverage area, a service life of up to 10 years for low-power IoT device batteries, 99.999% availability, 5 milliseconds latency, and 100% coverage." This progression serves as a testament to the advancements, leaving the limitations of 4G behind. Following some technical and tactical intricacies along with "ergotical" definitions, Olivier disclosed plans for local deployment of the technology, culminating with a compelling statistic: on average, each individual now consumes twice as much data in a single week as they did throughout the entirety of 2010.
Meanwhile Google is trying to make inroads into New Caledonia, due to its strategic geography in the Indo-Pacific region, where China and the US are waging a battle of influence over subsea internet cables.
French authorities recently said they had lifted a ban ban in New Caledonia on TikTok, which they suspect of fuelling recent unrest in the French Pacific territory. The government believes the app was being used by those opposed to French rule to communicate and organise violent protests.
