4 Feb 2014

American Samoa to get TV over internet thanks to US project

2:15 pm on 4 February 2014

American Samoa will soon have television programmes available via the internet, thanks to a 91 million US dollar project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service.

The Broadband Linking the American Samoa Territory, or BLAST project, is headed by the government-owned American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority.

Its chief executive officer, Moefa'auo Bill Emmsley, says laying the underground cable of the project has begun on the main island of Tutuila.

He says the project will not be completed until September 2015, but it will provide faster internet access and speed as well as internet protocol television programs.

"Our fibre optic network is currently being put in place. Within that fibre optic, ASTCA will also implement and institute its own TV programmes, IPTV."

Moefa'auo Bill Emmsley.