Telecom Niue has donated $20,214 worth of free data or a total of 1,677 GB to community groups and villages from January to July this year, based on the current rate of $12 per 1GB of data.
BCN news obtained data from Telecom Niue about their giveaways and donations which showed that the luckiest people on the island are the darts players. Donations of data to various darts groups on the island totalling 403GB or $4,836 worth of free data.
Niue Touch association received 372GB with $4,464 worth of free data followed by the village of Avatele with 249GB or $2,988 worth of free data.
The Tama Mana sports received 156GB of free data valued at $1,872 followed by Alofi with 145 GB valued at $1,740.
There were other villages including Hakupu, Tamakautoga, Lakepa and Mutalau received less than 100GB each, 74GB for Mutalau, 54 for Tamakautoga and 44 for Hakupu and Lakepa received 18GB free data worth $217. Niue High School received 60GB free data valued at $720.
BCN news was told by Chairperson of the TNL Board Avi Rubin that TNL is finalising their new packages for release this month.
It’s not clear how the free data donations is determined but BCN understands that free data is also provided to some senior public servants as well as free data is part of the employment packages of the staff and Board members for Telecom Niue Ltd.
The Niue government officially commissioned the Manatua marine cable in May this year and government state owned entity Telecom Niue is the only telco and largest internet service provider.
The financial reporting of Telecom Niue has come under heavy parliamentary scrutiny since they established as a company in 2016.
The Fono Ekepule last month appointed a 6 member select committee to probe into the operations of Telecom Niue Ltd and Broadcasting Corporation of Niue (BCN). The first hearing for BCN will take place next week on Tuesday 10th August.