Communications in Guam

Last updated

Though Guam is a United States territory, some U.S. long-distance plans and courier services list Guam as an international location. As a result of Guam's being added to the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in 1997, calls made to the U.S., Canada, or other participating countries from Guam (or to Guam from other NANP locations) only require the caller to dial a 1 followed by the area code. [1]

Contents

In this way, only domestic charges are incurred between the US and Guam on most carriers. Before Guam's inclusion, calling the U.S. required dialing the international 011 first, thus resulting in higher long-distance rates and less frequent calls to the U.S. by relatives in Guam. Prices of long-distance calls to these destinations have dropped significantly to the point where now calling the U.S. from Guam or calling Guam from the U.S. costs the same.

Mail

Some companies in the U.S. mainland still treat Guam as a foreign country and refuse to sell and ship items to Guam. However, if an item is shipped via USPS, shipping costs to Guam are the same as coast-to-coast shipping costs within the US. [2] Many others will ship to Guam but will charge the shipping as an international destination. This is mainly because the company is using a private shipping company like UPS, FedEx, or DHL for its shipping.

Much of the mail to and from Guam routes through Hawaii and awaits cargo space on United Airlines which is contracted to deliver mail between Hawaii and Guam.

Telephones

Telephones – main lines in use: 85,000 (2007)

Telephones – mobile cellular: 98,000 (2007)

Telephone system:

domestic: GTA: ~70,000 local access lines, dial-up and DSL, Internet, long-distance service, TDMA and GSM wireless services via Pulse Mobile & Docomo Pacific (formerly Guam Wireless) ChoicePhone LLC, dba iConnect with iDen, GSM and 4G LTE networks. [3]
international: satellite earth stations – 2 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); submarine cables to United States, Japan and Australia. [4]
international access code: +1.671 (in the North American Numbering Plan, Area code 671)

Radio and television

Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 7, shortwave 2 (2005)

Radios: 300,000 (2007)

Television broadcast stations: 8 (2007)

Televisions: 200,000 (2007)

Internet

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 4 (2013)

Country code (Top-level domain): GU

Submarine cables

Because of its location in the western Pacific and its status as U.S. territory, Guam has one of the most extensive submarine communications cable infrastructures in the Asia-Pacific. [5] The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami cut many of the primary cables connecting the United States and Asia, prompting companies to look for alternate locations for new cables. [6] In 2019, GTA Teleguam and RTI Cable built the island's first combined neutral cable landing station and data center. [7] This coincided with a bill introduced to the Legislature of Guam by Sen. Telo Taitague to conduct an economic study and develop policy recommendations on submarine cables. [8] GTA also seeks to attract U.S. companies to build data centers on Guam, noting the reduced network latency from Asia to Guam, compared to the U.S. [6] Existing cable landing stations and their cables are: [5]

Retired cables landing on Guam include China-US Cable Network and PacRimWest.

See also

Related Research Articles

Country Code: +1284
International Call Prefix: 011

Telecommunications in the Cook Islands

Like most countries and territories in Oceania, telecommunications in the Cook Islands is limited by its isolation and low population, with only one major television broadcasting station and six radio stations. However, most residents have a main line or mobile phone. Its telecommunications are mainly provided by Telecom Cook Islands, who is currently working with O3b Networks, Ltd. for faster Internet connection.

Guam Organized, unincorporated territory of the United States

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States ; in Oceania, it is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, and the most populous village is Dededo.

Telecommunications in Jamaica include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.

Submarine communications cable Bundle of long-distance wires/optical fibers on the seabed for information relaying

A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables laid beginning in the 1850s carried telegraphy traffic, establishing the first instant telecommunications links between continents, such as the first transatlantic telegraph cable which became operational on 16 August 1858. Subsequent generations of cables carried telephone traffic, then data communications traffic. Modern cables use optical fibre technology to carry digital data, which includes telephone, Internet and private data traffic.

Communications in Barbados refers to the telephony, internet, postal, radio, and television systems of Barbados. Barbados has long been an informational and communications centre in the Caribbean region. Electricity coverage throughout Barbados is good and reliable. Usage is high and provided by a service monopoly, Barbados Light & Power Company Ltd..

Bermuda has three main television stations, a small cable microwave system, two public GSM services, multiple submarine cables, and two main Internet service providers. In late 2020 a new provider Horizon Communications gained regulatory approval. Horizon Communications offers High speed 4G and soon 5G Fixed LTE Wireless connection, with burstable bandwidth.

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling code 1. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP.

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor, also called Port Apra, is a deep-water port on the western side of the United States territory of Guam. It is considered one of the best natural ports in the Pacific Ocean. The harbor is bounded by Cabras Island and the Glass Breakwater to the north and the Orote Peninsula in the south. Naval Base Guam and the Port of Guam are the two major users of the harbor. It is also a popular recreation area for boaters, surfers, scuba divers, and other recreationalists.

A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reachable by a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbering plans are defined in each of the administrative regions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and in private telephone networks.

Area code 907 Area code that serves Alaska, USA

Area code 907 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of Alaska, except for the small southeastern community of Hyder, which uses area codes 236, 250, and 778 of neighboring Stewart, British Columbia.

TPC-5CN or Trans-Pacific Cable 5 Cable Network is a submarine telecommunications cable system linking Japan, Guam, Hawaii and mainland United States.

CUCN

CUCN or China-US Cable Network was a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It was retired from service in December 2016.

TGN-Pacific is a submarine telecommunications cable system transiting the Pacific Ocean.

The area code 671 is the local telephone area code of the United States territory of Guam. It was created with the beginning of permissive dialing on July 1, 1997, replacing Guam's previous International Telecommunication Union country code 671 at the end of permissive dialing on July 1, 1998.

PacRimWest was a twin-pair 560Mbit/s optical submarine telecommunications cable which served as Australia's main link to the world along with its partner cables Tasman2 and PacRimEast.

PIPE Pacific Cable (PPC-1) is a 6,900 km submarine cable laid by PIPE Networks. It runs from Cromer, New South Wales, in Australia, to Piti, Guam.

Communications in Grenada

References

  1. ↑ J. N. Deak (August 5, 1996). "PL-NANP-004" (PDF). North American Numbering Plan Administration. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Postal Zone Charts". US Postal Service. June 7, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
  3. ↑ "iConnect Guam". iConnect Guam. November 7, 2013.
  4. ↑ "What is PPC-1?". Archived from the original on May 6, 2008.
  5. 1 2 "Cable Landing Stations in Guam". www.submarinenetworks.com. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  6. 1 2 Ossola, Alexandra (September 19, 2019). "Tiny Guam is vying to be the world's next big telecommunications hub". Quartz. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  7. ↑ Partido, Gerry (September 16, 2019). "Submarine cables are Guam's buried treasure; island pushed as telecom hub". PNC News First. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  8. ↑ Kaur, Anumita (September 13, 2019). "Sen. Telo Taitague explores expanding Guam's telecommunications industry". Pacific Daily News. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.