Press outlets in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have reported that PNG DataCo, a telecommunications carrier established by the PNG government, along with its partners, has landed the Kumul submarine cable in Kokopo, the capital of East New Britain.
East New Britain is a PNG province, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands.
PNG Dataco CEO Paul Komboi was quoted as saying that the province would become a stakeholder in a massive infrastructure that is expected to transform telecommunication services in the country and open up opportunities for economic growth and development benefits, including tourism.
The Kumul Submarine Cable Network (KSCN) is described as being part of PNG DataCo’s broader objective to support the government’s ICT policy aims by building, owning and operating a national broadband transmission network with point of presence and data centres. This, in turn, is expected to allow increased access and availability at affordable prices for essential broadband communications services and thereby to facilitate social and economic development in the country.
KSCN is a 5,457-km domestic internet platform to link fourteen provinces and two national data centres in Port Moresby and Madang, PNG. The KSCN also connects to Jakarta through Indonesia’s national backbone submarine cable network and further connects to Asia to form a new international internet gateway. The KSCN project is part-funded by the Chinese government.
Domestic telecommunications services in PNG have, until now, largely relied on satellite and microwave communications. Huawei Marine and PNG DataCo Limited are constructing the national submarine cable network to provide the backbone telecommunications needed by major PNG coastal centres and islands.