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Comp spells no doom for Telikom: Chief Sec
By BRIAN GOMEZ in Cairns, Australia
THE Chief Secretary Joshua
Kalinoe said yesterday he did not believe the view that competition from
two new mobile phone operators “will destroy” Telikom PNG.
Speaking during a question and answer session at the Australia-PNG
conference in Cairns, Mr Kalinoe said: “Telikom is a very expensive
monopoly. We need to make it more responsive to consumer needs.”
He said the two new mobile phone companies had been given Government
approval to commence operations from April 1 but there were differences
between Telikom and ICCC about when Telikom’s monopoly period would end.
Officially, the Telikom monopoly ends in October and a committee on
telecommunications policy has been with the minister since October last
year, he said, expressing hope it would be taken to cabinet for
approval.
Mr Kalinoe told the conference that smaller Pacific island nations such
as Fiji and Samoa had reasonable mobile phone coverage compared with PNG
and there were at least two mobile operators in each of these countries.
He said the Government wanted to see Telikom operate as an efficient and
profitable company.
In his keynote address, Treasurer Sir Rabbie Namaliu said the
introduction of two mobile phone licences in October this year would end
50 years of monopoly by Telikom and “have a very significant impact”.
The introduction of greater competition in the wider economy would bring
benefits to the public, he said.
In another presentation, the former head of the Institute of National
Affairs, Mike Manning, also raised the question of poor services from
Telikom.
Recently in Port Moresby, he said, he tried to download the Norton
anti-virus software onto his laptop computer and he was forced to give
up after 45 minutes. It only took five minutes to do the same task in
Cairns.
Mr Manning said the telecommunications speeds were half of the speed in
Port Moresby and Rabaul, where he lives, and the question was whether
PNG was going to enter into the 21st Century or remain behind.
Michael Mayberry of the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry
said business houses had not been happy with Telikom, which has “had
five years to prepare for the ending of the monopoly situation”.
However, he said business “always felt that October 2007 was
appropriate” even though the Government had decided to introduce
competition for mobile phone services starting from next month.
“Telikom needs to be competitive,” he said.
 
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