The Piula Theological College can now access faster internet connectivity, thanks to a partnership with the local telecommunications company Vodafone Samoa.

The partnership between the Piula Theological College and Vodafone Samoa was officially launched on Saturday at Piula.

Piula Theological College Principal, Reverend Dr. Mosese Mailo, told the Samoa Observer in a telephone interview on Saturday that the college is a recipient of a fibre optic service to enable access to faster internet connectivity.

"Especially during the need of communication for education, not only educational programmes for the theological college but we have also received free WiFi for our children," he said.

"Our children now have free WiFi to access the [Ministry of Education Sports and Culture] curriculum. They received sim cards that [have no access] to social media but just only to [M.E.S.C] curriculum for them to study."

The goal of the partnership is to improve internet connectivity for use by the College for education programmes such as Moodle, according to Rev. Dr. Mailo.

Before the partnership, he said sometimes there would be no internet connection at the college, but that has all changed now.

"It is really fast now. It's efficient internet service, especially during Zoom meetings, there would be no situations when I would see it would freeze."

For internet usage, he said there are no restrictions for students of the theological college, but only for the children.

"They are mature and they know how to use social media to communicate with families," he said.

Rev. Dr. Mailo said the internet service gives them an opportunity to contact their children and their families but their internet usage will be monitored.

"The school monitors it to avoid too much download of songs and movies," he said. "We have an IT team to monitor that."

Asked about penalties for abusing the service, Rev. Dr. Mailo said there are penalties but everyone should use it wisely and for educational purposes only.

"Especially now that the College has launched its Masters programme. On the Masters and Bachelors level there are many workshops and meetings overseas which can now be done on Zoom, and also research done with other libraries," he said.

Rev. Dr. Mailo expressed his appreciation to the Vodafone Samoa management for accepting their proposal and for the free WiFi for their children.

"There are other services that they have brought which is useful for us because we live far away such as the M-Tala," he said.

Rev. Dr. Mailo emphasised the importance of the service due to their location which saves time for staff and students travelling Apia to receive money from overseas, when they can easily receive it through M-Tala.

Vodafone Samoa C.E.O. Nofoasaefa Satish Sharma told the Samoa Observer that Piula had recently switched all of its internet and telecommunication needs to Vodafone Samoa.

The project launched on Saturday will empower students and families staying and working at Piula by giving them free WiFi so that the students can study, according to Nofoasaefa.

"And this WiFi is only for study material, not for any social media," Nofoasaefa told the Samoa Observer.

He said that they are trying to create an environment where students of Samoa get into the habit of doing more studies, and indicated that this comes from their realisation that the two biggest pillars of the society is education and health.

He said his company is trying to assist these two sectors and emphasised that it is not for business but rather to support a cause.

According to Nofoasaefa, they did not invite the media to the launching on Saturday because they wanted to roll out the service silently.