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Business |
Digicel fires first salvo at Telikom
Challenge yourself
and raise the bar, Slowey tells local telco
By BIBIAN BARRENG
“GET out of the court and into the battle field”.
This was the challenge thrown by Digicel Pacific chief executive
Vanessa Slowey at Telikom as she fired the first salvo
challenging the telco “to interconnect and compete” with her
company.
After months of keeping a low profile on the new mobile
company’s telecom project in the country, Ms Slowey gave a brief
presentation of Digicel’s operating networks in the Caribbean
and the Pacific during a breakfast meeting hosted by the PNG
Business Council yesterday.
Ms Slowey was the invited guest speaker.
In a brief interview with The National following the meeting, Ms
Slowey put the word out for Telikom to challenge themselves and
“raise the bar”.
“They should put their energy not in the court room but rather
in providing better services.
“I don’t know what they are afraid of,” Ms Slowey said.
She stressed Digicel “will fight every obstacle” in their way
placed by Telikom, particularly with the effort to interconnect.
“We will launch … and it is the moral and constitutional right
for every individual to be able to communicate and have the
choice to choose which ever telecommunication company to be able
to communicate,” Ms Slowey added.
She presented on the telecom problems in the Caribbean back in
2001 where there was a strong hold of telco monopoly in the
region that was quite similar to that of Papua New Guinea where
there was inhibited access to communication services, increased
prices, unacceptable quality of service and no customer care.
These resulted in increased cost of doing business, that led to
the low quality of life and made the Caribbean unattractive for
inward investment, Ms Slowey noted.
“We are passionate about our commitment to introducing effective
competition … we will continue to fight each obstacle Telikom
places in our way – the court battle on the period of their
exclusivity and their effort to prevent interconnection.
“Very soon, each of you will have access to a first-world
telecom service to which you are entitled,” Ms Slowey said.
With regards to Digicel PNG, Ms Slowey said as far as their
status in the country was concerned, the company’s investment
was placed in excess of US$600 million (K1.42 billion) over the
course of the licence and a further US$100 million in excess to
date and “still growing”.
In terms of employment opportunities, Ms Slowey reported that
Digicel currently has in excess of 350 full-time employees and
some 400 part-time employees, with 97% of them Papua New
Guineans.
The exact launching date was yet to be known but Ms Slowey had
noted the launch was expected to be in a few weeks time.
 
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