Broadband deal inked
The National, Thursday July 4th, 2013
By MIRIAM MALAWA
TELIKOM Papua New Guinea and Huawei Technologies signed a K6 million contract in Port Moresby yesterday that will introduce a high-speed broadband network across the country.
With the National Broadband Network (NBN) in place, it would now open up PNG to a new era of telecommunication and information communication technology industry.
The project will incorporate the replacement of Telikom’s obsolete terrestrial radio infrastructure and public switched telephone network (PSTN).
It would increase fixed broadband network penetration to match existing PSTN geographic foot print and provide a fourth generation mobile broadband services to rural people.
Telikom Chairman Mahesh Patel said this project “signals a new and exciting chapter for PNG because of its accessibility”.
He stated that through the support of the Independent Public Business Corp (IPBC), shareholders and PNG government, Telikom PNG has afforded the opportunity to undertake investment to implement Telikom’s NBN.
“Services that were once inaccessible to ordinary Papua New Guineans could be brought to their doorsteps,” Patel said.
Patel said these services would include data centre, video conferencing, data warehouse for storage of high data volumes e-commerce, world wide research collaboration activities for universities and tertiary institutions and Broad service.
He also said the majority of the funding would be secured from the China Exim Bank through a liaison with the Department of Treasury.
Huawai Global chief financial officer Cathy Meng, who spoke at the signing, said the company is the world’s leading provider of NBN rollouts and applauded both Telikom and the PNG Government for carrying out this visionary project.
“We share the same vision and more importantly, improved network connectivity will speed up the evolvement of PNG’s digital economy, further enrich people’s lives and bridge the digital divide,” she said.
The contract would make high-speed broadband services available to nearly 100,000 premises across PNG.