SYDNEY (ABC Radio Australia / Pacific Media Watch): Papua New Guinea is pushing ahead with plans for a national broadband network that will improve internet speeds and prices.
Internet costs are extremely high in Papua New Guinea, where it is estimated that users pay up to 200 times as much as their Australian counterparts.
Telecommunications was one of several topics on the agenda of a summit this week specifically focused on investment in Papua New Guinea.
According to Radio Australia, large amounts of money are currently being poured into Papua New Guinea to upgrade its telecommunications infrastructure, including development of what will effectively be a national broadband network using an integrated optical fibre network.
"The goal is to make PNG a country which has the kind of broadband speeds which we expect in Australia," summit organiser Andrew Wilkins told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat programme.
The National Transmission Network would cost more than US$ 200 million and would be controlled by the newly established PNG DataCo.
Increased speed
It would act as the wholesaler supplying broadband to existing telecommunications companies as well as new entrants to the market, providing increased competition that should see prices lowered as speeds were increased.
"At this stage, they reckon it may not be until 2016 or 2017 when it's finally finished but once that's ready, basically all of Papua New Guinea's users of mobile phones and broadband internet will have access to those speeds," Wilkins said.
The head of the country's largest telecommunications company, Digicel PNG, John Mangos, told the summit his company estimated there were now 1.5 million Papua New Guineans with phones that had the potential to connect to the internet.
Wilkins believed those figures, combined with the promise of fast internet, meant Papua New Guinea was on the cusp of big change.
"This represents a transformative leap for Papua New Guinea."
Consultant Sundar Ramamurthy, from Invoc Pty Ltd, had previously predicted consumers would see the benefits of lower prices and better access by mid-2014.
Internet need must be seen as essential PNG need
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Pacific Media Watch
