Bluesky Communications

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Blue Sky Communications is a facilities-based telecommunications provider operating in American Samoa, a U.S. territory located in the South Pacific with a population of 65,000. Blue Sky has been in operation since 1999.

The parent company, American Samoa Telecom, LLC, is privately owned and is registered as a limited liability corporation in the state of Delaware.

Blue Sky’s main line of business is wireless telephony. Under a PCS license from the Federal Communications Commission, the company operates a GSM network (1900 Mhz) for 16,000 subscribers. Its customers enjoy both local and long distance service, as well as a prepaid long distance service for non-subscribers in American Samoa.

Blue Sky also serves as an Internet Service Provider, providing both dial-up and broadband connectivity. It has over 500 dial-up subscribers, which constitute approximately 25% of this existing market segment. A growing list of customers subscribes to Blue Link, a wireless, high-speed Internet service. There are currently over 500 Blue Link customers with various packages starting from 128kbps and up, with a growth rate of 10-15% per month.

Blue Sky owns its own on-island infrastructure with the exception of fiber-optic backhaul, which is leased from other telecommunication and cable television providers. It owns and operates two 7.3 meter satellite dishes and an earth station, a Nortel DMS-100 switch, 12 cell tower sites, a number of cell pole sites and associated peripheral equipment. From its earth station in Iliili, Blue Sky maintains private circuits over different satellites to points of presence in San Francisco, California, and Kapolei, Hawaii.

Off-island, high-speed data services are provided for a number of corporate customers. Bank of Hawaii, for example, uses Blue Sky’s earth station and fiber facilities for a dedicated connection from their main office in the Centennial Building to their headquarters building in Honolulu, Hawaii. KHJ93 connects their local radio station to San Diego using a BlueLink connection for live broadcasts to California. StarKist, Department of Home Land Security and the US Department of Agriculture have high speed, circuits through Blue Sky. In 2005, Blue Sky won an RFP from American Samoa Department of Education for a clear channel T1 to the University of Hawaii over Blue Sky’s Hawaii satellite link.

Blue Sky maintains a call center for trouble, repair and 411 calls from their cellular customers during the hours of 7am to 11pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. After these hours, calls are directed to the operations center, where the network is monitored on a round-the-clock basis.

A new, permanent operations center is located in Ili’ili. This hardened; hurricane-proof concrete structure houses network elements, high capacity stand-by generators and redundant equipment. The transfer of network backbone connections from aerial cable to underground fiber is continuing to ensure invulnerability to adverse weather conditions. In addition, a back-up RF network provides redundancy and reliability to the network.

A majority of the company’s employees are of Samoan descent, and all are permanent residents of American Samoa. A variety of consultants provide ongoing specialized expertise in various areas.

The company is debt-free and enjoys a positive margin on its continuing operations.

Blue Sky has two retail stores, one in Fagatogo Square and a store in the Laufou Shopping Center with new administrative offices located above.

Blue Sky recently merged with Datec, an IT support company, to provide a complete end-to-end service.

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