By FRANK ASAELI
THE Rural Industries Council (RIC) firmly believes that a deregulated communications industry, backed by high quality road networks, will fast-track rural development by boosting the country’s agriculture industry and increase production.
“We do not need to convince anyone that services in the country have a lot to be desired, and alas, the biggest losers are our rural population and the agriculture industry,” RIC information and education officer Peter Kili said at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workshop at UPNG last week.
The industry was concerned over the Government’s proposed ICT Policy and that the industry was in support for a deregulated or open communications industry, Mr Kili stressed.
The modern definition of communication – telephone and internet or email services – had been enforced in recent months by the introduction of limited competition through the entry of cell phone provider Digicel, which introduced state-of-the-art communications facilities in remote rural areas.
“More competition can only mean that more and more people will have access to cheaper telephone and internet services.”
Benefits of competition in modern communication were being realised such as helping to get across information about prices, markets and matters of quality control.
Companies and agencies, some of which were semi-Government, were dealing with reality in Papua New Guinea and know the difficulties faced by the rural population in regard to communication and transport.
Mr Kili said the agriculture sector, together with world donors, applauded the Somare Government when it announced its ‘Green Revolution’ during the last Parliament, a pledge to focus on agriculture development to boost the economy.
However, recent proposals though had been perceived by many, including the rural industries, as a move by Government to tighten its control of the communications industry and protect the current monopoly of B Mobile, a subsidiary of Government-owned Telikom PNG Ltd.
But having had a taste of an alternative mobile phone service and its reach into the surroundings in some provinces over the past nine or 10 months, rural communities may not let those alternative services be taken away from them under a revised policy without a fight, Mr Kili said.
Through Digicel, rural communication had sprung up around large farming areas around the country in less than nine months while the Government’s own network had not been able to do it in more than 30 years, he noted.