TELECOMMUNICATIONS ECONOMIC UPDATE
Crossing the digital divide Papua New Guinea’s telecommunications infrastructure has evolved fast following the commissioning of two undersea cable networks in the past three years. By David James Having faced low bandwidth, high data prices and frequent call drop-outs for years, many PNG-based executives can now Zoom with confidence. The completion of the 4700km CS2 international fibreoptic cable at the end of 2019 allowed network wholesaler PNG DataCo to finally decommission its ageing APNG2 international link in early 2021. Together with the Kumul Domestic Submarine Cable, which circles PNG’s coastline and islands, the CS2 cable now forms the backbone of a national telecommunication infrastructure.
Digital divide PNG DataCo is looking to increase the capacity of its data centre services this year to accommodate a surge in
demand, as cloud technology gets adopted by PNG businesses and government. The next challenge, says PNG DataCo’s Managing Director, Paul Komboi, is to overcome the ‘digital divide’ – to close the gap between those who have access to internetbased services and those who don’t. He claims that PNG has made great advances in the skills needed to develop new cloud-based services. ‘We have in the past decade increased [skills] exponentially. Bridging the digital divide is not impossible any more.’ According to Une O’Ome, General Manager Commercial for PNG DataCo, internet connectivity prices in PNG fell on average by 40 per cent in 2019 and about the same amount again in 2020.
Mergers and coverage The merger of two state-owned telecommunication retailers, bmobile and Telikom PNG, is expected to be completed in 2021, as the stateowned businesses prepare to take on 32 BUSINESS ADVANTAGE PAPUA NEW GUINEA
not only the largest incumbent telco, Digicel, but new competition. (Both companies and PNG DataCo fall under the control of an umbrella state entity, Kumul Telikom.) According to Anthony Pakakota, CEO at bmobile, the integration of the two companies’ mobile networks is now complete (see Inside View). Meanwhile, a new entrant is preparing to enter PNG’s increasingly competitive mobile space. Digitec, a subsidiary of Fiji’s Amalgamated Telecommunications Holdings, is currently building its own network of around 1100 mobile towers in PNG ahead of a launch expected in late 2021. ‘The introduction of a third mobile network operator will bring much needed competition to the market to drive retail prices down for the benefit of our people,’ says Communications Minister, Timothy Masiu. ‘We’ve also done our independent assessments and we believe mobile coverage could easily jump from 42 per cent to 85 per cent within one year after the launch of the third operator.’
