Dataco addresses concerns

PNG DataCo says there are no environmental effects of the Kumul Submarine cable that were laid across maritime provinces in the country.
Responding to queries from The National regarding concerns raised by some leaders in East Sepik on Kumul submarine cable that was laid in the province in March, chief executive Paul Komboi said the public should lodge formal complaints to authorities to deal with.
“There is no environmental effects of the submarine cable so we will not make it an issue,” he said.
“If people have proof then lodge a formal complaint with appropriate authorities and we can deal with it.”
Mengar ward 21 councillor Francis Hevu and Wom ward 18 councillor Noel Maru said the submarine cables recently installed by PNG DataCo in East Sepik came without any awareness.
“The people are scared to go out fishing and to do their normal activities as they were afraid there might be some consequences,” they said.
“The locals are concerned because ships that installed the cables came into their shoreline and carried out the work without them being informed. If there was awareness before all these, it would be great for us.
“We want DataCo to come down and talk with us on this.
“They didn’t address our concern before laying the cables.”
The Kumul submarine cable network project is funded through a concessional loan from the Exim Bank of China and is one of the two projects under the national transmission network operated by DataCo.
It features 5,457km of internet cable to provide the domestic internet platform to link 14 provinces and the national data centres in Port Moresby and Madang.
It connects Jakarta via Jayapura through Indonesia’s national backbone submarine cable network.
It connects to Asia to form a new international gateway.