Dear Editor, I know there are naysayers out there who think Starlink is not offering any benefits to our economy and hence shouldn’t be allowed into the country.

They refer to Vodafone who sponsors this event or that sports fixture or Te Maeva Nui or forms partnerships with other businesses for promotion of upcoming fixtures.

Of course, they do, no one is denying that this happens. However, consider this, they are monopolistic, the price for doing business in small countries like ours means businesses like Vodafone are big fish in a small pond and they must strategise their business model to sell their goods and services to deter competition and increase their profit margin to support their bloated administration and service provider assets.

Sponsorship is one of those strategies, it makes good business sense to do so. Also remember the majority of their profits also go offshore to their shareholders, some is earmarked for business as usual and investment and of course Government takes their cut.

The thing about Starlink is that it is a resource and an investment not a need. It is like a car, it is not just for getting one from A to B, it is a lifeline for beneficial transactions like transport, cartage, freight, goods transaction activities and hence an investment.

The downstream effect of that investment is in people’s quality of life, a lifeline for remote communities, an opportunity to invest in education, online business, global contact with family, friends and business markets, an opportunity to connect island community with island community, an opportunity to allow visitors to work remotely, employees to work remotely, businesses to work remotely. It is fast, efficient, effective and the cost is affordable for wage earners in a family or shared resource in a small community.

A game changer by any measure you care to compare given what we have come from over the years from dial up to broadband to high orbit satellite technology to fibre to LEO Starlink satellite technology. The result is measured not just economically as there are spinoffs for working more efficiently, mitigating time wasting for troubleshooting, not having to have a large IT support structure of equipment and people resources.

The benefits of having Starlink far outweigh the consequences of not having it, we can see that people are a lot happier in their social and business interactions, and this is borne out by the social media and street talk comments.

So those who are negative, do your homework, don’t just talk off the top of your head because you speak from a position of weakness of the greater picture and the detail inherent.

What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth.

Te Tuhi Kelly