by Kevin Pamba
Humble mobile phone is
godsend in rural villages
Madang’s cargo cult leader Steven
Tari, also known as “Black Jesus” was caught by police through
the help of the humble mobile telephone early this year.
He had been on the run after escaping from police custody two
years ago. He was wanted for a string of crimes relating to his
cult movement that involved sexual abuse of underage girls and
violence meted out to members.
But Black Jesus’ two-year run from the long arm of the law was
shortened by a mobile phone call from the jungles of North
Ambenob Local Level Government area of Madang Open electorate.
A village informant scaled a nearby mountain top and called
police in Madang town on his mobile phone after locating Black
Jesus.
The distance between Madang town and the location where Black
Jesus was caught is a good half a day’s walk – there is no road
there.
The police braved the conditions and responded to the mobile
telephone call and eventually caught the cult leader, who is in
custody awaiting his court appearance.
The tale of rural and remote area people scaling nearby hilltops
or mountains to use access the mobile phone signals is catching
on as a new phenomenon.
Here is another such tale from a teacher at Tusbab Secondary
School in Madang who managed to call his relatives perched high
on the hills at Tulire village in Kagua district, Southern
Highlands province
Tusbab and Tulire have nothing in common except that they are
localities in Papua New Guinea.
They are worlds apart. Tusbab is on the north coast of PNG and
Tulire is up in the mountainous Highlands of PNG.
Tusbab enjoys the modern goods and services while Tulire
doesn’t. Several weeks ago, Tusbab and Tulire came together for
the first time. This was made possible by the mobile telephone.
It was one of the most memorable moments for Mr Nemela and his
relatives back at Tulire.
It happened by accident. Mr Nemela tried his luck on calling the
relative who had gone home to Tulire with a mobile phone knowing
that parts of SHP were recently connected to the B Mobile
network through funding from the Southern Highlands provincial
government.
Mr Nemela made the call hoping that it would be established and
to his good fortune, it did. What aided the call was the
location of Tulire. It is perched on a hill with a good view of
neighbouring Ialibu district, where the B Mobile service was
connected last year through funding from the provincial
government.
Today, Mr Nemela takes advantage of the location of Tulire and
calls his relatives regularly. The people in Tulire also use
their vantage location to make use of the B Mobile coverage in
Ialibu to call out to other parts of the country.
In the past, the use of the telephone for the Tulire folks would
mean a long PMV ride to Ialibu, Mendi or Mt Hagen.
The people of Tulire are taking advantage of their location to
use the B Mobile coverage in a neighbouring district and stories
abound in other parts of SHP that the rural folks with mobile
phone sets are scaling mountains and hilltops in the hope of
accessing the mobile phone coverage in Mendi, Ialibu and Tari
towns – the three regional district centres that the Southern
Highlands provincial government paid Telikom to establish the B
Mobile service.
Similar stories are coming out of other provinces where people
in remote areas are going out of their way to buy mobile phone
sets and using them. If they can’t in their villages, they are
scaling mountain and hilltops to make the mobile telephone
calls.
The sudden proliferation of the mobile phone service is helping
the delivery of service. Take this incident that illustrates
this fact.
A lot of people living in towns but have parents and relatives
in the remote and rural areas, are finding the mobile service as
godsend. We can now communicate with our parents and relatives
in the village unlike before.
The arrival of new mobile phone company, Digicel is set to make
life even better with its increased coverage of the country.
Digicel is not waiting for the next MP to provide the cash to
extend its coverage to the remote parts of the country has
happened with Telikom in provinces like SHP.
In the districts like Ialibu where Telikom waited for governor
Hami Yawari to fork out the cash to establish the B Mobile
network, Digicel is putting up its reception towers all over the
district with no input from politicians.
If that is not competent corporate citizenship and service to
the majority of the people, what are the few ministers in
government squabbling over trying all they can to stop Digicel?
Governments and ministers are supposed to support development
opportunities that are clearly benefiting the people.
