Nicta helps in provision of 3G network

Business

THE National Information and Communication Technology is helping in the provision of the 3G network to less accessible areas, chief executive officer Charles Punaha says.
“In the context of PNG, we have a project that we have been implementing with assistance from the World Bank,” he said.
“We are rolling out services to the last remaining unserved areas that are currently uneconomical for service providers to go in. We provide the subsidy for them to go in.
“The projects were undertaken at  57 sites and we have now also addressing the voice data.
“At the moment, most of the sites in rural Papua Newc Guinea are 2G. So we are providing the subsidy for service providers to go in and upgrade that service to a minimum of 3G. That project is currently underway.
“Recently, we awarded contracts to both Digicel and Telikom by regions for them to upgrade the existing 2G sites to 3G sites.
“One of the things that we are facilitating for is access because without access, the internet service we provide to people of this country.”
Board director and independent expert Dr Bob Horton said the main issues facing Papua New Guinea  from external perspective were nothing new.
“It’s access and affordability. But over the years we have seen some remarkable changes. We have seen Digicel extended accessibility to most parts of the country.
“The cost with access to internet in Australia is about 5 per cent of the household income.
“Papua Newc Guinea is 145 per cent. How do you get that down? 2G will deliver voice, you need to go to 3G and 4G to get the data as well – and on the back of that, we get some internet basis much more.”