St Helena Government (SHG) and Sure South Atlantic Limited (Sure) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marking an important step towards a major upgrade of St Helena’s broadband and mobile networks.
SHG and Sure have been discussing the island’s longer-term future for communications for some time. Through 2025, detailed technical, commercial and legal talks took place with negotiations on a longer-term licence reaching an advanced stage in June 2025. Whilst agreement was not reached, work has continued looking at options for improving the domestic communications network.
The key development now is that SHG has secured funding to move forward with one of the more ambitious options identified during that process.
Funding is being brought together through the BIOT MoU and the United Kingdom Government-funded Economic Development Investment Programme (EDIP) for St Helena. As part of accessing EDIP funding, the infrastructure project will be developed in accordance with EDIP standards, governance, assurance and approval processes.
The MoU is an important milestone, but significant work remains before network upgrades can begin, including completion of the required EDIP assurance and approval processes, detailed technical and commercial work, contractual arrangements, licensing and planning approvals. The MoU sets the framework, but the contractual details for the network upgrade and a new communications licence still need to be agreed.
The option now being progressed includes a new Fixed Wireless Access broadband service together with a significant upgrade of the island’s mobile network.
A key principle of the proposed arrangements is that new network assets purchased through the publicly funded project would remain SHG-owned assets, recognising the importance of telecommunications infrastructure as part of St Helena’s critical national infrastructure. It is intended that the new network assets will be operated and maintained by Sure and will then be transferred to SHG at the end of the licence term, ensuring the investment remains for the long-term benefit of St Helena.
If successfully taken through the remaining approval, contractual and implementation stages, the proposed network upgrade is expected to deliver a substantial improvement over the existing network, with the potential to increase network capability from around 20 Mbps today to upwards of 300 Mbps.
This will provide significant benefits for households, businesses and public services, including improved opportunities for remote working, better access to cloud-based services and online markets, and increased capacity for areas such as education and healthcare.
Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Planning and Economic Development, Karl Thrower, said:
“For several years I have said that our priority must be to maximise St Helena’s investment in the Equiano cable in the public interest. This has never just been about faster internet, or about who provides it; it is about ensuring that the people and businesses of St Helena receive the reliable, affordable and modern telecommunications services they need.
“The signing of this MoU is an important step forward and, importantly, it demonstrates our intention to move forward positively and constructively in partnership with Sure. But we also need to be clear about what today’s announcement represents. This is a significant milestone; it is not the end of the process.
“There is still a considerable amount of work ahead of us. The infrastructure project must now progress through the appropriate EDIP assurance and approval processes, detailed commercial and contractual work still has to be completed, and the future telecommunications licence remains a separate piece of work.
“We have learnt lessons from the journey that has brought us to this point, including the previous fibre network project. That makes it even more important that we proceed carefully, maintain proper governance and are open with the public about both the opportunities ahead and the work that remains to be done.
“The option we are now seeking to progress allows us to finally unlock much more of the potential of the fibre-optic cable. Better connectivity can support our businesses, education and healthcare, improve the resilience and efficiency of public services and open up entirely new economic opportunities for St Helena.
“Ultimately, however, the measure of success will not be the equipment we install or a headline broadband speed. It will be whether people across St Helena see better services, greater affordability and real improvements in their everyday lives. That is what SHG and Sure must now work together to deliver.”
Sure Chief Executive Alistair Beak said:
“We are incredibly proud to be continuing our long-standing partnership with the St Helena Government and to be entrusted with delivering this significant upgrade to the island’s telecommunications infrastructure. We have worked closely with SHG to develop the plans and secure the funding for this ambitious programme, which represents a major investment in St Helena’s digital future.
“This marks the beginning of a new era of connectivity for the island. The Equiano cable has brought enormous international capacity to St Helena; our focus now is on ensuring the community can fully realise its potential by building the high-quality, resilient network needed to connect homes, businesses and Government to it.
“Working with our local team on St Helena, we will deliver a new generation of broadband services offering speeds of hundreds of megabits, alongside a significantly enhanced mobile network and upgraded services for businesses and Government. Faster speeds, greater coverage and improved reliability will provide a significantly better experience for our customers and bring St Helena firmly into the modern digital age.
“Importantly, this is about much more than faster broadband. Better connectivity can create new opportunities for local businesses, support economic development and help enable the continued development of essential services such as education and healthcare. It will provide a digital platform from which St Helena can continue to develop for many years to come.
“We want to move quickly. A transformation of this scale will take time to deliver across the island, but our ambition is to begin deployment in early 2027 and for the first customers to start benefiting from the new network by the middle of the year. We look forward to working closely with SHG, our local team and the wider community to make that happen.”
The signing of the MoU enables SHG and Sure to progress the next stage of work on the proposed infrastructure project.
The current programme envisages implementation beginning 2027, with services being introduced progressively thereafter. These timings remain indicative and will be refined as the project progresses through the remaining approval and contracting stages.
The infrastructure project and the future telecommunications licensing arrangements are related but separate workstreams.
The MoU does not itself grant Sure a new communications licence. Future licensing arrangements will continue to be progressed separately under the Communications Ordinance 2025 and through the appropriate SHG legal, policy and regulatory processes.
SHG, Sure and the EDIP team will continue to work together on the infrastructure project, and further information will be provided as key approvals and milestones are reached.
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