PNG will have a more reliable and cheaper cost of internet connectivity when the Kumul Domestic Submarine cable project is completed next year.
That is according to the Public Enterprise and State Investments Minister William Duma when he visited the Coral Sea Cable System Landing Site at Port Moresby’s Kila Barracks and Gerehu Satellite Earth Station, both in Port Moresby, yesterday.
State-owned enterprise under Kumul Consolidated Holding, DataCo anticipates the drop of internet pricing by 20 per cent of the current rate.
The Exim Bank of China is funding the domestic project with cost just over US$250 million (K783.45m) and main contractor Huawei PNG is progressing well with the project on site readiness and marine survey.
Mr Duma described the project as a game changer and a new technology that will revolutionise the way PNG does business when he visited the Kila Barrack site in Moresby South where the Coral Sea Cable system will connect to Port Moresby.
Mr Duma said the PNG Government led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is committed to ensuring the people receive quality and reliable internet service at much cheaper rates, and that will be through the Coral Sea Cable project.
“While the Coral Sea Cable System will provide high speed international connectivity to Port Moresby, we would still have the challenge of connecting other parts of Papua New Guinea to Port Moresby to be able to enjoy the benefits of this cable by the majority of our people who live outside of Port Moresby.”
The project will connect all the 15 coastal provincial capitals with this modern communications medium, fibre optic submarine cable. The project is currently underway, where preparations for the site are now advancing for the Port Moresby to Madang segment (via Alotau, Popondetta and Lae).
Last month an agreement was signed between the PNG and the Australian governments for a trilateral project to provide additional capacity for high speed broadband connectivity.
Mr Duma said the Coral Sea Cable will be a state of the art cable system between Sydney, Australia and each of Port Moresby and Honiara, the Solomon Islands.
It will comprise of two pairs of fibre optic cables which travel in parallel from Sydney to a branching unit in the Coral Sea, where they will travel to both PNG and the Solomon Islands.
Source: https://postcourier.com.pg/cheaper-internet-services-2019/